Dark Angel Proving One Of The 'Greats'

Dark Angel | Yeomanstown Stud

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One might say that the true mark of a great stallion is the ability to sire good horses from indifferent mares. This is a test which many of the great sires have never had the chance to pass (or fail) because they have covered high-class mares right from the outset. One stallion who has proved that he can sire top-class horses from unremarkable mares is Dark Angel (Ire) (Acclamation {GB}). Now that he has proven himself to be one of the best stallions in Europe he is only covering mares who can justify the outlay of a high stud fee but that certainly wasn't always the way for him.

Bred in Ireland by Gay O'Callaghan's Yeomanstown Stud, Dark Angel made his first public appearance at Doncaster's St Leger Yearling Sale in August 2006. It would have been an easy decision for O'Callaghan to choose that sale for him as he fitted its precocious sprinting bill perfectly. He was a strong, imposing colt, and his pedigree was very suitable. He was the son of a first-season sprinting sire: Acclamation (GB) who had won the G2 Diadem S. over six furlongs at Ascot. Furthermore, both of Acclamation's parents had won sprints at Royal Ascot: his sire Royal Applause (GB) (Waajib {Ire}) and his dam Princess Athena (Ire) (Ahonoora {GB}). There were no Group or graded stakes winners in the first three generations of Dark Angel's pedigree, but there were plenty of smart sprinters on the page, most notably his second dam Night At Sea (GB) (Night Shift). She had won a Listed five-furlong race at Sandown when trained by Luca Cumani, and had gone on to breed seven winners. Dark Angel's unraced dam Midnight Angel (GB) (Machiavellian) wasn't one of them, but she had made a decent start at stud. Her first three foals were winners, and this yearling (unlike those predecessors) was by a proper sprinter. Dark Angel duly sold well, bought by the BBA Ireland for £61,000. Trained by Barry Hills for the Hon Mrs Catherine Corbett and Chris Wright, Dark Angel spent 2007 proving that he was exactly what one had hoped that he might be, i.e. the perfect sprinting 2-year-old. Having finished second on debut at Newmarket's first meeting of the season that April, he went on to run regularly and consistently well all year. His finest hour came on his eighth start when, early in October, he saluted the judge for the fourth time, taking the G1 Middle Park S. over six furlongs at Newmarket.

He had previously won a five-furlong maiden race at the Chester May Meeting, a valuable six-furlong sales-race at the York Ebor Meeting in August and the G2 Mill Reef S. over six furlongs in September. His season ended on a low note when out of contention behind New Approach (Ire) (Galileo {Ire}) in the G1 Dewhurst S. later in October, but that was his only venture beyond six furlongs and it did nothing to diminish his reputation of having been everything that a high-class 2-year-old sprinter should be.

Dark Angel's connections had plenty to look forward to during the forthcoming seasons. This was before the bolstering of Europe's 3-year-olds' sprinting programme with the introduction of the G1 Commonwealth Cup and other races, but there have always been appealing options for sprinters aged three and above if they are good enough. And Dark Angel promised to be every bit good enough and was clearly a sound horse. However, he also promised to be a popular sprinting stallion, and there is always good money to be made with that type of horse. O'Callaghan clearly decided that there was no time like the present, made an offer for the horse which his connections couldn't refuse and took him home.

Dark Angel duly began covering at Yeomanstown's sister stud Morristown Lattin in February 2008 at a fee of €10,000, an appealing prospect for the many commercial breeders in Ireland looking to present a popular youngster at the yearling sales two years later. There is such a premium on first-season sires that this €10,000 fee proved unsustainable in the short-term. The fee was reduced to €7,500 for his second season and to €7,000 for his third and fourth years. However, his popularity began to rise again as soon as he started to have runners in 2012. It has continued to rise throughout the subsequent five years, and is still rising.

Dark Angel's first crop of juveniles were every bit as successful as even his most optimistic fans could have hoped. Sixty-two of them ran in Britain and Ireland that year and 27 of them won, collectively taking 44 races. The pick of them at this early stage was the well-named Irish youngster Tough As Nails (Ire) who got the ball rolling in the right direction by passing the post first at the Curragh's opening meeting of the spring in Ireland's first juvenile race of the year. (He was demoted to second for having caused interference, but put that right three weeks later when winning by seven lengths at Tipperary). Later in the season, Tough As Nails finished second in the G2 Railway S. and the Marble Hill S. and third in the G1 National S. In the summer Lily's Angel (Ire) became her sire's first stakes winner by taking the Empress S. at Newmarket in June en route to a second-place finish in the G3 Sweet Solera S. at the same track. Tough As Nails had cost €3,000 as a yearling at Fairyhouse and Lily's Angel had fetched £8,000 at Doncaster. Both mare-owners and yearling-buyers were quickly being shown that Dark Angel could be a stallion offering great value.

The path of Dark Angel's stud fee tells the tale. After that very good first season, he covered for €12,500 in 2012. Two years later his fee more than doubled, going up to €27,500. In 2016 it went up to €60,000 (with the horse transferred from Morristown Lattin to Yeomanstown). This year he stood for €65,000. Next year his fee will be €85,000. And he will be full at that price, with plenty of support from the all leading breeders (most obviously from Darley, who bought into him in 2015). It is a sobering thought that the best really should still be to come with Dark Angel, as all his good horses so far come from more humble origins than will be the case for those yet to come. It is relatively easy to sum up the strengths of Dark Angel's stock. The high-class jumper Guitar Pete (Ire) notwithstanding, they are almost invariably sprinters, sprinter/milers or milers. He is a notable sire of juveniles and (paradoxical though this sounds) even more adept at siring horses who are abnormally durable and who can make remarkable progress as they age.

While his first crop threw up plenty of terrific 2-year-olds, it also contained the likes of Lethal Force (Ire) who won the G2 Hungerford S. over seven furlongs at three before improving further to take both the G1 Diamond Jubilee S. and the G1 July Cup over six furlongs at four; Bronze Angel (Ire) who won the Cambridgeshire H. over nine furlongs aged both three and five; Heeraat (Ire) who enjoyed his best season aged four, winning the G3 Hackwood S. over six furlongs; the dual listed winner Gabrial (Ire) whose best run came when he was placed in the G1 Queen Elizabeth II S. over a mile at the age of six and Sovereign Debt (Ire) whose best season (so far!) was at the age of eight in 2017, when he won the G2 Bet365 Mile S. at Sandown, the G3 Diomed S. over 8.5 furlongs at Epsom (in a quinella of Dark Angel 8-year-olds, as Gabrial was second) and a valuable international mile race in Qatar.

From Dark Angel's second crop came the smart juvenile Alhebayeb (Ire), winner of the G2 July S. at two and Dark Emerald (Ire) who came into his own as a 5-year-old, winning two valuable handicaps in Dubai before finishing second in the G2 Zabeel Mile. He was then G2-placed in the UK at six. The terrific sprinting siblings dual G1 Nunthorpe S. heroine Mecca's Angel (Ire) and dual G3 winner Markaz (Ire) came from his third and fourth crops, the latter batch also containing the dual G2-winning juvenile Estidhkaar (Ire).

All of these horses were conceived at fees of €10,000 or less. His fifth crop was the first conceived at a higher sum (€12,500) and that included Persuasive (Ire). She was a group three winner and was group one-placed as a 3-year-old in 2016 before progressing into the very top tier at four in 2017, ending the season with victory in the G1 Queen Elizabeth II S. over a mile on QIPCO Champions' Day at Ascot. The excellent sprinting filly Easton Angel (Ire) came from the same batch. Even Dark Angel's outstanding batch of 3-year-olds of 2017 was still only conceived at €12,500. This crop contained arguably the two best sprinters in Europe: Harry Angel (Ire) who took the G1 July Cup, G1 Haydock Park Sprint Cup and G2 Temple S. and Battaash (Ire) who won the G1 Prix de l'Abbaye, G2 King George S. and G3 Coral Charge Sprint S.

It is rare for a stallion to work his way from the lower rungs to the top of the ladder. Danehill Dancer (Ire) (Danehill) did so, graduating from being the cheapest stallion on the Coolmore roster in his first season (1998) to being champion sire of Great Britain and Ireland 11 years later. Dark Angel's maternal grandsire Ahonoora (GB) (Lorenzaccio {Ire}) went from the bottom drawer to the top, and Ahonoora's son Indian Ridge (Ire) did something similar. Now Dark Angel, who is lying third behind Galileo (Ire) and Dubawi (Ire) on the TDN's table of European-based stallions ranked on combined North American and European earnings for 2017, can be put in the same category of self-improvement. Over and above the success of his stock on the racecourse, he has been a massive commercial success. The median price of his yearlings has risen virtually every year. When his first yearlings were sold in 2010, 57 were sold with a median price of 17,000 gns; in 2017, 106 were sold with a median price of 100,000 gns. Furthermore, he already has enough good sons at stud to establish a solid reputation as a sire of sires and, even though it's obviously still early days, he is already broodmare sire of one of Europe's fastest juveniles, G3 Molecomb S. winner Havana Grey (GB) (Havana Gold {Ire}).

 

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