Fashion trends and a consequent inequality of opportunity have become so integral a part of the modern bloodstock world that we frequently see stallions who, one might say, have greatness thrust upon them.

In other words, we see stallions who retire to stud as popular horses and thus are favoured with large books of high-class mares from the outset. Consequently they can find success inevitably coming their way (unless, of course, they are genuinely poor sires). It is refreshing, therefore, when one sees a stallion who actually achieves greatness, a stallion who starts out covering lesser mares but manages to join the elite by virtue of a rare ability to upgrade his mates.

The Australian pin-up for this stallion profile is I Am Invincible (Invincible Spirit {Ire}), himself by a European sprint shuttle sire, who was launched off a $11,000 fee and is now standing for $247,500.

In Europe, the example in recent years has been the 14-year-old Irish-based grey stallion Dark Angel (Ire) (Acclamation {GB}). He has never shuttled but his son Harry Angel (Ire) is about to start doing so; and if Harry Angel turns out to be anything like his father, he will pass on qualities which should be invaluable in an Australian racing environment.

An offer too good to refuse

Trained by Barry Hills, Dark Angel made his debut as a two-year-old in April 2007 at the Craven Meeting, Newmarket’s first meeting of the year. He ended his racing career merely six months and two days later at the great racecourse’s penultimate fixture of the season, Yeomanstown Stud having made his connections an offer which they could not refuse and which would see him beginning to cover mares in Ireland in February 2008.

That sole two-year-old campaign was, unfortunately, all we saw of Dark Angel, and so we shall never know how he would have fared had he remained in training in 2008 and beyond. What we do know, though, is that he was a super-tough two-year-old who retired sound at the end of an arduous six-month, nine-race preparation in which he ran honestly and well every time.

What we can guess, bearing in mind that he has proved so effective at instilling toughness, soundness and durability into his stock, is that he may well still have retired sound even if he had raced for another decade.

In winning four races including the G1 Middle Park S. at Newmarket and the G2 Mill Reef S. at Newbury, Dark Angel showed himself to be not just tough but fast and precocious too. Those latter qualities were presumably what Yeomanstown Stud was seeking because there is always a demand for young, relatively inexpensive stallions who look as if they might be able to churn out two-year-old sprinters. And that is exactly what Dark Angel did when he started to have runners in 2011.

A tough and precocious sire

The best of his first-crop juveniles was Lily’s Angel (Ire). Having cost £8,000 as a yearling, she completed a hat-trick by taking the Lily Agnes S. at Chester’s May Meeting and then went on to win the Empress S. at Newmarket and finish second in the G3 Sweet Solera S. at Newmarket.

She was merely one of 27 individual two-year-old winners for her sire in the British Isles that year, those 27 juveniles winning 44 races.

The following season, though, it began to become apparent that Dark Angel was not merely a very good sire of precocious juvenile sprinters. Lily’s Angel herself provided plenty of clues. She won a further three races as a three-year-old including a Listed race over a mile at Dundalk; and at four she won three more, starting off with a handicap in the UAE and graduating via a listed race at Kempton to taking the G3 Chartwell Fillies’ S. over seven furlongs at Lingfield.

On her penultimate start she finished second in the G1 Matron S. over a mile at Leopardstown. By this time, though, it had become clear that she was far from the best member of Dark Angel’s first crop: that honour fell to Lethal Force (Ire), winner as a three-year-old of the G2 Hungerford S. over seven furlongs at Newbury and as a four-year-old of two of Europe’s most prestigious sprints, the G1 Diamond Jubilee S. at Royal Ascot and the G1 July Cup at Newmarket.

Winning at two and beyond

As the years passed, Dark Angel’s profile has continued to rise. Each year he was producing a fresh batch of good two-year-olds. Each year the members of his first crop were getting a year older, and many of them were still winning.

The spring of 2017 provided the perfect illustration of the durability and toughness of Dark Angel’s stock. By this time, Dark Angel’s first crop were eight-year-olds.

At Sandown in April two of them, Sovereign Debt (Ire) and Gabrial (Ire), finished first and second in the G2 Sandown Mile. At Epsom’s Derby Meeting five weeks later, the same two horses again finished first and second, in the G3 Diomed S. over 8.5 furlongs. Both horses had been dual winners as two-year-olds. Ultimately, Sovereign Debt retired last year with career statistics of 63-15-29-5, his final win coming in a listed race at York in July 2018 at the age of nine.

Gabrial is still racing at the age of 10. Last week he finished fifth in a Group Two race at Chester. His statistics currently stand at 90-9-9-19. Similarly tough has been another member of Dark Angel’s first crop: the admirable Bronze Angel (Ire) bowed out last autumn at the age of nine with statistics of 53-8-2-7 and ranks as one of only seven horses in the 180-year history of Newmarket’s Cambridgeshire H. (which he took in 2012 and ’14) to win the great race twice.

Lest one think, of course, that Dark Angel is merely a sire of horses who stay sound and willing for a long time, it is worth emphasising how effective he is at siring top juveniles.

His best youngsters have included the Group Two-winning two-year-olds Harry Angel (Ire), Estidhkaar (Ire), Alhebayeb (Ire), Birchwood (Ire), Guitafan (Ire) and Juliet Capulet (Ire).

Gabrial (who has finished in the first three in three Group 1 races), Sovereign Debt (who finished second to Farhh (GB) (Pivotal {GB}) in the G1 Lockinge S. as a four-year-old) and Lily’s Angel are merely three of 17 individual Group/Grade One performers for Dark Angel to date.

Seven of these are Group/Grade 1 winners, with 10 Group 1 victories between them. Most were conceived at a time when Dark Angel was covering seemingly unremarkable mares at relatively low fees. The path of Dark Angel’s stud fee has been a good indicator of his burgeoning success.

He retired in 2008 at a fee of 10,000 euros. This proved unsustainable and in 2010 and ’11 he was standing for 7,000 euros. In 2012, after his first juveniles had impressed, his fee was raised to 12,500 euros. In 2014 it went up to 27,500 euros; in 2016 to 60,000 euros; in 2018 to 85,000 euros.

Already off the mark as a Group 1-winning broodmare sire courtesy of his top-class grandson Havana Grey (GB) (Havana Gold {Ire}), Dark Angel now has several sons at stud in Europe including Lethal Force (Ire), Alhebayeb (Ire), Estidhkaar (Ire), Markaz (Ire), Guitaifan (Ire), Birchwood (Ire) and Heerat (Ire).

The pick on racecourse form, though, has to be Harry Angel (Ire), winner of the G2 Mill Reef S. as a two-year-old in 2016; the G2 Sandy Lane S., G1 July Cup and G1 Haydock Park Sprint Cup at three; and the G2 Duke Of York S. at four.

Alongside the dual Group 1-winning mare Mecca’s Angel (Ire) and the brilliantly fast Group 1-winning gelding Battaash (Ire), Harry Angel has been one of three outstanding sprinters by Dark Angel lighting up the short-course scene in Europe over the past three years. He is currently standing his first season on the Darley roster at Dalham Hall Stud in England and is set to shuttle to Kelvinside in New South Wales later this year.

During the past decade Dark Angel has shown himself abnormally good at passing on precocity and durability simultaneously, and able to churn out fast, sound, tough, genuine horses with remarkable frequency. If his excellent son Harry Angel is able to do the same thing, he should be extremely good at siring horses suited to Australian racing conditions.

All Dark Angel images in this article courtesy of Yeomanstown Stud