Harry Angel provides another boost for his sire with dominant win

Dark Angel received a further boost on Saturday when his son, Harry Angel, showed a clean pair of heels to his rivals to land the July Cup at Newmarket.

Harry Angel, recently purchased privately by Godolphin, had last been seen being touched off by Caravaggio in the Commonwealth Cup. The front-running tactics employed on the July course were the same as at Royal Ascot and with Caravaggio in trouble far from home, he won by a cool one and a quarter lengths.

Victory ensured that the colt becomes his sire's third Group 1 performer and second winner of the sprint contest alongside Lethal Force, who won the race back in 2013 also for trainer Clive Cox and jockey Adam Kirby.

He was bred by CBS Bloodstock out of the unplaced Cadeaux Genereux mare Beatrix Potter, herself a half-sister to dual Hong Kong Group 1 winner Xtension. The fourth foal, he is a half-brother to the winner Golden Journey.

It was at the DBS Premier Yearling Sale in 2015 where Ballyphilip Stud, owned by Paul and Marie McCartan, offered the future Group 1 hero and he was duly snapped up by his trainer Cox for the tidy sum of £44,000.

For the McCartans, it is the second week in a row that a son of Dark Angel has provided them with Group victories as breeders. Last Saturday it was the Charlie Hills-trained Battaash who was an explosive winner of the Group 3 Coral Charge to give Dark Angel his 13th Group 3 scorer.

He was bred by them out of the Lawman mare Anna Law and is a graduate of Book 2 of the Tattersalls October Yearling Sale where he was bought by Shadwell for 200,000gns.

Yeomanstown Stud's Dark Angel, a 12-year-old son of Acclamation, has been commercially popular in the sales ring for many years. While his stock may be known for their precocity - he was retired to stud at the end of his two-year-old season - the ultra-tough Sovereign Debt has advertised that his talents as a sire are not confined to just two-year-olds.

This year's crop of juveniles, as highlighted last month, for Dark Angel includes a half-sister to St James's Palace Stakes hero Barney Roy called Wisdom Mind and the Ed Dunlop-trained Faay, a sister to Mecca's Angel and Markaz bought by Charlie Gordon-Watson for 400,000gns at Book 1 of last year's Tattersalls October Yearling Sale.

There is of course plenty in the pipeline for the Middle Park Stakes scorer with his crops bred off fees of €60,000 in 2016 and €65,000 in 2017. Harry Angel's breakthrough victory at the highest level, has yet again underlined how far Dark Angel has come as a sire and clearly bodes well for him to continue to supply top-class talent for many years to come.

4.35 Newmarket result