HE’S MYANGEL
Trainer Cox now has high hopes for his Godolphin-owned colt
THE career path trod by Harry Angel will swell the pride trainer Clive Cox feels if he overcomes predicted soft ground to win the 32Red. com Sprint Trophy at Haydock on Saturday.
The Godolphin-owned colt blasted rivals in the July Cup at Newmarket but the journey has not always been smooth. There were initial issues with the starting stalls and an edgy temperament which needed harnessing.
‘There were quite a few setbacks,’ said Cox. ‘But we were confident it was going to happen for him and we also worked jolly hard to give him confidence.
‘This fella has got a personality which was a little over- exuberant but now we are seeing the real potential. A sprinter’s mentality needs a bit of that explosive nature. That is what it is all about. Containing that is what we always try to achieve.’
Harry Angel looked like an explosive ball of energy when he broke the sixfurlong track record at Haydock in the Sandy Lane Stakes in May.
Adam Kirby’s mount then did too much too early at Royal Ascot when beaten by Caravaggio in the Commonwealth Cup, but Cox says that run was a turning point in Harry Angel’s career.
He looked more controlled in the July Cup when Caravaggio was one of his floundering rivals.
‘It was the making of him — you could see it in his eye,’ Cox explains. ‘The July Cup wasn’t a shock to us. We all had those expectations.’
Cox trained his first Group One winner in 2010 when Gilt Edge Girl won the Prix de l’Abbaye at Longchamp’s Arc meeting.
Seven more have followed, two of them supplied by another bullet galloper, 2013 Diamond Jubilee Stakes and July Cup winner Lethal Force.
With another sprint Group One win on his record thanks to Profitable in last season’s King’s Stand Stakes at Royal Ascot, former jump jockey Cox has formed a reputation for training sprinters.
But that does not worry the man who trains 100 horses at John Francome- owned Beechdown Stables in Lambourn.
‘ I think the ambition when I started training was just to make a living and to make a living doing what is a passion. I am very lucky,’ said the unassuming Cox.
‘It gives me great pleasure when you look at the trainers’ list and where we are.’
Where Cox is, is within touching distance of his best ever prizemoney tally if Harry Angel can land Saturday’s first prize of almost £150,000.
Opponents include Brando, who finished third in the July Cup, and this season’s Diamond Jubilee Stakes winner The Tin Man.
Cox added: ‘It looks like we will have different ground conditions (from the Sandy Lane Stakes) but the track does not hold any fears. It’s a Group One and there are a lot of horses to be respected but I couldn’t have Harry in better nick.’
Meanwhile, the first disciplinary hearing of doping in Britain involving cobalt will be held on September 19.
Stephen McConville and his son Michael, from Northern Ireland, face charges which carry bans of up to 10 years. They include administering a banned substance to Anseanachai Cliste. The gelding was withdrawn before the Foxhunters’ Chase at the Cheltenham Festival in March by order of the stewards after officials ‘could not be satisfied that the horse had been administered only normal feed and water’.
Tests subsequently showed cobalt above the permitted level in his urine. Cobalt has been the focus of a number of doping cases in Australia. It is an essential trace element in the diet of mammals but at heightened levels increases red blood cell production and the oxygen- carrying capacity of the blood.