'Our hope is he can become a permanent top ten sire' - third-season title charge underscores Harry Angel's ascendance in Australia

He may live somewhat in the shadow of his fellow Darley shuttler Too Darn Hot, but Harry Angel is rapidly building a robust case to show he’s not too darn far behind his much-vaunted barnmate.

Indeed, in one notable respect – which will appeal to Australian breeders – he’s ahead.

War Machine’s victory in Saturday’s Stradbroke Handicap provided his sire with his third Group 1 winner, all of which have come in Australia, alongside Tom Kitten and Private Harry. The 11-year-old has had 340 runners worldwide, and 129 through three crops in Australia.

Too Darn Hot also has three top-level victors, with only one in Australia in Broadsiding. The nine-year-old sire has had 307 runners globally, and 91 from two crops racing in this country.

Returning this year to stand for A$275,000 (all fees inc. GST) after a year off the shuttle, the rampaging Too Darn Hot does enjoy a superior stakes winners to runners ratio in Australia, with ten at 10.99 per cent.

Harry Angel, who’s earned a more humble fee rise from A$38,500 to A$66,000 – when it was A$16,500 just three years ago – has seven Australian stakes winners at 5.42 per cent.

Certainly, Darley is delighted to have both shuttlers, who have risen to be twin towers on their 14-strong stallion list, alongside their two Australia-based heavyweights in the A$110,000 Anamoe and his A$66,000 sire.

After being crowned Australia’s champion first-season sire last term, Too Darn Hot has a lock on the second-year sires’ title, with progeny earnings of A$9.4 million compared to second-placed Castelvecchio’s A$5.8 million.

Meanwhile, Harry Angel has streaked away with the third-season sires’ title, with A$14.6 million compared to the A$6.7 million of second-placed Justify and the A$6.6 million of third-ranked The Autumn Sun.

Harry Angel also sits seventh on the Australian general sires’ table – a highly impressive effort considering his age and runners, and that he has only three crops running.

At 11, he’s the youngest stallion in the top 15, with another sire two years his junior ranked 16th – Too Darn Hot. And Harry Angel has had just 120 runners this season. 

The top five sires average 297, seven of the top 12 have had 300 or more, and only fifth-placed Fastnet Rock has fewer than Harry Angel – and only just at 116 – with his ranking hugely inflated by A$10 million earner Via Sistina.

“Harry Angel is obviously a very good sire,” Darley’s head of stallions Alastair Pulford told ANZ News.

“To have the number of high quality horses that he’s got, from where he started, is a great thing really. He started off as a $20,000 stallion [before GST] and for his second, third and fourth seasons he’d dropped to $15,000.

“So he’s a horse who really improves his mares, and he’s a very exciting horse for us.”

Pulford drew a comparison not with Too Darn Hot but another illustrious sire in assessing Harry Angel’s success through books of mares drawn from relatively low fees.

“With the success he’s had, in 2023 his fee was A$30,000, last year it was A$35,000, and now it’s A$60,000,” Pulford said.

“Obviously with the improvement in the quality of the mares he’s been getting, we’d expect the quality of his results to improve too.

War Machine: a third Group 1 winner for Harry AngelCredit: Grant Peters

“That’s what happened with I Am Invincible. He started at a low fee [A$11,000] but just got better and better as the mares got better and better. We’re hoping that’ll be the case with Harry Angel.”

Pulford said one glowing aspect of Harry Angel’s CV was his versatility; Private Harry’s Group 1 came over 1100 metres, War Machine’s over 1400 metres, while Tom Kitten has won his pair at 1600 and 2000m.

Furthermore, throughout his list of leading progeny, there are precious few repetitions of damsires and second damsires. From a relatively unknown sire line in Australia – by Dark Angel, by Acclamation, by Royal Applause – Harry Angel is also Danehill-free, making for hefty outcross appeal.

“He’s a super versatile stallion, as you can see from his three Group 1 winners,” Pulford said.

“Those three have been males, but he has good fillies as well, such as Stretan Angel, who’s been placed twice in Group 1s.

“And it’s interesting that his performers are all out of very different types of mares. He certainly doesn’t seem to be confined to one sire line.

“He’s a great outcross, being by Dark Angel. It’s a sire line that was pretty much brand new to the country when we first shuttled Harry Angel, and it’s obviously fantastic when these outcrosses do work, because everyone’s always looking for them.”

Indeed, Harry Angel’s southern success relative to his European performance could eventually prompt discussion within Darley regarding leaving him in Australia permanently.

The dual Group 1 winner has sired 12 stakes winners in Britain, France and Ireland, from 194 runners. While that’s a 6.18 per cent figure, compared with his 5.42 percent in Australia, his top six performers have come in Australia.

They also include the Group 1-placed Arkansaw Kid and Stretan Angel, while major things are expected of rising four-year-old Angel Capital, who’s won at Group 2, Group 3 and Listed level.

Harry Angel’s leading European offspring has been four-year-old gelding Marshman, who's won a French Group 3 and a Listed contest in England.

“He’s done a better job here than he has in Europe, funnily enough,” Pulford said.

“He’s been a good stallion in Europe without having the highlights he’s had here. He’s had good horses in Europe, plenty of good winners, but he’s certainly loving the Australian conditions and loving the Australian mare band more than he does the European band, for whatever reason.

“Sometimes that happens, but he’s certainly really succeeding down here.”

As for leaving Harry Angel in Australia permanently, Pulford said: “We haven’t given that much thought yet, but obviously that will be discussed in time.”

He added: “Too Darn Hot is absolutely elite, but Harry Angel is doing a fantastic job, and both of them are proving these high-class European horses do certainly have a place here and can make a very long and lasting impression on the breed here.

“Harry Angel is certainly the youngest horse by far in the general sires’ top ten and that’s obviously a very encouraging sign. His oldest progeny are only four, and as he gets older and he gets more runners around him, our hope is he can become a permanent top ten sire.

“And he’s leading the third-season table against some pretty awesome competition in Justify and The Autumn Sun. Both of those started at much higher fees, so we’re very proud that he’s been able to absolutely dominate in that title race.”

Harry Angel will return to Australia where he is fully booked for the upcoming breeding season

While he’s now in heavy demand, with his Australian average yearling price rising this year from A$84,000 to A$97,000, and with a higher quality list of mares to be served this spring, Harry Angel will likely cover a similar sized book to last year’s 131.

“He’s fully booked. We’re embarrassed by the number of quality mares and quality breeders who want to go to the horse this year. We’ve had to knock back a heap,” Pulford said.

“We’re not a farm that covers the high 100s. For us 100 to 140 is plenty, and it gives him enough opportunity and keeps everyone happy, including the horse. We’re proud of that policy, and we stick rigidly to it.”

Pulford reflected that with Dark Angel having been largely unknown in Australia when Harry Angel arrived, Darley worked hard to market the stallion.

“I wouldn’t say he was a hard sell, but with the shuttle horses, it’s all about education, and teaching our client base the merits of the horse,” he said.

“We did have confidence in him from the beginning, or you don’t bring them out here. You do have to have some level of confidence that he’s going to suit Australia and the market is going to take to him.

“Certainly, a few people really got behind him early, but with shuttlers with an unknown sire line, it was never going to be easy to get mares to him. But we did get books of over 100 mares in his first few seasons and that was enough to give him an opportunity to succeed.

“He’s certainly done that. He’s a horse that’s just going to be on the up and up.”

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