Harry Angel seeks elusive Ascot win

The 4-year-old colt Harry Angel has been a top sprinter in England in the last two years – as long as he is away from Ascot.

A four-time group stakes winner, Harry Angel has won 5 of 9 career starts but is winless in four starts at Ascot. Trained by Clive Cox, Harry Angel has run well at Ascot, leaving hope that the losing streak will end in Saturday’s Group 1 Diamond Jubilee Stakes at six furlongs.

The Diamond Jubilee is the featured race on the fifth and final day of the Royal Ascot meeting. The winner will earn a fees-paid berth in the Breeders’ Cup Turf Sprint at Churchill Downs on Nov. 3.

As of Thursday, Harry Angel was the 5-2 favorite in the future book for the $794,640 Diamond Jubilee, which has drawn an excellent field of 12. Harry Angel, who will be ridden by Adam Kirby, will start in sharp form, having won the Group 2 Duke of York Stakes at six furlongs May 16 at York Racecourse on good-to-firm turf.

The turf course at Ascot has been watered in recent days and is expected to be good-to-firm Saturday.

Harry Angel’s losses at Ascot include a second to Caravaggio in the Group 1 Commonwealth Cup for 3-year-old sprinters by three-quarters of a length at the 2017 Royal meeting. Harry Angel had the early lead in that race. He closed from just off the pace in the Duke of York Stakes.

In the Diamond Jubilee, Harry Angel’s principal rivals are Merchant Navy, Redkirk Warrior, and Bound for Nowhere.

Merchant Navy and Redkirk Warrior have won Group 1 races in Australia since November. Redkirk Warrior and Merchant Navy were first and third in the Group 1 Newmarket Handicap at Flemington Racecourse in Melbourne in March. Redkirk Warrior has not started since.

Merchant Navy, who joined trainer Aidan O’Brien’s stable in Ireland in April, won the Group 1 Coolmore Stud Stakes at Flemington last November and won his debut in Ireland in the Group 2 Greenlands Stakes on May 26 at The Curragh.

Bound for Nowhere, trained in Kentucky by Wesley Ward, was a 9-1 chance as of Thursday. Bound for Nowhere won the Grade 2 Shakertown at 5 1/2 furlongs on turf in April at Keeneland and was fourth in the 2017 Commonwealth Cup at Royal Ascot.

Ward has two other runners on Saturday’s six-race program – Moonlight Romance in the $119,200 Windsor Castle Stakes for 2-year-olds at five furlongs and Undrafted in the $231,770 Wokingham Stakes at six furlongs.

Moonlight Romance, one of two fillies in a field of 24, won a maiden race at five furlongs on turf May 24 at Belmont. Ward has won the Windsor Castle twice, most recently in 2014.

Undrafted, who won the 2015 Diamond Jubilee, will be a longshot in the Wokingham Stakes, which drew a maximum field of 28.