Fallen Angel will lead the Karl Burke team into battle at Royal Ascot next week, her assignment being to beat her female peers at a mile in the G2 Duke Of Cambridge Stakes rather than take on the boys in the G1 Queen Anne Stakes.
Burke’s team also features a batch of talented two-year-olds aiming to emulate the stable’s juvenile wins at the meeting last year that came from Leovanni in the G2 Queen Mary Stakes and Shareholder in the G2 Norfolk Stakes, both in the Wathnan silks Fallen Angel now wears.
“We have a lot of entries and there’s every chance we’ll have around 15 or 16 runners in total,” Burke told Idol Horse.
It will be Fallen Angel’s first visit to the famous Berkshire course. The two-time Group 1 winner was forced to miss the G1 Coronation Stakes at last year’s Royal Meeting due to an injury picked up after her win in the G1 Irish 1,000 Guineas. That setback kept her off the track until the autumn when she raced twice in the top grade, placing second and fourth.
The grey has raced once this term, at Newbury on May 17, leading the field in the G1 Lockinge Stakes until fading to sixth of eight behind the winner Lead Artist and star colts Rosallion and Notable Speech.
“Fallen Angel goes to the fillies and mares race at the mile; we were very happy with her run in the Lockinge,” Burke said. “We’ve always said she improves a lot for her first run of the season so we were delighted with the run and she’s come out of it really well.”
The Too Darn Hot four-year-old is partnered regularly in her work by Burke’s son-in-law and assistant James Cowley and the team was pleased with her exercise on Tuesday morning, eight days out from her Ascot target.
“She’s worked well this morning,” Burke added.
Fallen Angel stepped up to a mile and a quarter for the first time in the G1 Prix de l’Opera at Longchamp last year and was a solid fourth there despite the very soft going. Her trainer feels that a return to that trip could be within her scope again at some point.
“I still think she’s got every chance of staying the mile, two,” he said. “She wasn’t quite as effective over it but it was kind of an end of season run and I’m sure sometime in the future we’ll try it again, but a stiff mile is well within her compass as well.”
Burke’s Spigot Lodge stables enjoyed its best ever season in 2024 and with a team of more than 80 two-year-olds this campaign, the numbers are looking good once again. The Middleham handler has 45 wins for the year at an 18 per cent strike rate, and has had three winners in the first 10 days of June, including the exciting Wathnan-owned filly Zelaina, successful on debut at Nottingham on June 4.
The daughter of Mehmas, a £650,000 buy at the Goffs UK Breeze-up this spring, is likely to try and emulate Leovanni who won the same Nottingham maiden en route to Queen Mary success second-up. Burke also won the race in 2023 with Dramatised.
“Zelaina looks a very fast filly and she’s entered for the Queen Mary,” he said. “We were very happy with that run, and all being well, if she turns up … she’s a little bit hot but she behaved well first-time-out so I don’t see that as being a problem.”
Burke has another exciting filly heading to Ascot’s other big juvenile fillies’ contest in the shape of Venetian Sun, a smart winner on debut at Carlisle in May in the ownership of Brighton & Hove Albion owner Tony Bloom and Ian McAleavy.
“All being well she goes to the Albany Stakes over six furlongs,” Burke said. “She looks a lovely filly and she worked very well this morning as well.”
Meanwhile, Leovanni will attempt to give Burke a second win in the G1 Commonwealth Cup over six furlongs. The stable won the three-year-old contest in 2016 with another filly, Quiet Reflection.
“Leovanni ran very well first time out at Haydock and she goes to the Commonwealth Cup,” Burke said. “She didn’t get much luck in running the other day and she’ll improve for it.”
Another Wathnan-owned candidate for two-year-old honours is the colt Naval Light, runner-up over five furlongs at Beverley on his only start.
Naval Light will have an entry in the Coventry and the Norfolk and there are no firm plans yet which way he goes, it’ll depend what else Wathnan has for those races,” Burke said.
He hopes good results at Ascot will maintain the stable’s form and maybe even provide extra impetus through the summer months.
“We’ve had a great start to the year and we’ve carried that forward,” Burke said. “But there are always horses that aren’t performing as well as they should so hopefully if we can turn them around we’ll turn it into an even better season, but I’ve got to be happy with the way things are at the moment.
“We just do what we can, get as many winners on the board as we can and as much prize money as we can. We don’t really set targets.
“Obviously,” he added, “last season’s figures are there and we want to get as close as we can to them.” ∎
