Fallen Angel Will Do It Her Way In The Queen Elizabeth II Stakes And Beyond

IT WAS A February morning at Spigot Lodge and all was quiet around the old stable rows at Karl Burke’s yard on the edge of Middleham’s High Moor. In the last of the whitewashed boxes on the right, at the far end as you look from the main house, a grey filly in a warming rug had her head buried deep inside the feed bin, munching contentedly.

Then the ears flicked, the head came up and Fallen Angel walked to the door, poked her nose over the top, looked for a moment, decided there was nothing of great interest to see and went back to her feed.

“She’d never miss a mealtime,” James Cowley told Idol Horse eight months later, with her biggest test taking on the colts in the G1 Queen Elizabeth Stakes at Ascot just a few days ahead of her. Only three fillies have won the race in the 49 years since Rose Bowl won back-to-back in 1975 and 1976.

“That’s half the battle with a filly. You get a filly like that who takes the work, who wants to do the work and comes back and pretends like none of it has ever happened, they’re the ones you want, they’re the easy ones.” 

He said it’s the same when she has travelled away to France or Ireland with groom Alice Kettlewell on hand to look after and lead her out, Polo mints at the ready. 

“One thing that she will never do is miss a mealtime,” Cowley continued. “She’s very photogenic as well, it’s like she knows she’s at the centre of attention and sort of the pride of the yard. When we have our open days she puts herself on show and even though her temperament can sometimes be quite boisterous, she’s definitely very kind and wants people to know who she is.”

Cowley is Burke’s assistant trainer as well as his son-in-law; he is also the person who has ridden Fallen Angel more than anyone else, out on the gallops each day since her two-year-old days, testing the lungs and strengthening the legs on Middleham’s famous rising, windswept moor.

He’s the one who perhaps knows best of all this under-hyped-in-the-media champion of a filly. He understands what innate trait she brought to Spigot Lodge as a young horse that has given her the competitive fighting qualities that have so far brought home five Group 1 wins.

“Fiery. Fiery,” he repeats knowingly, recalling Fallen Angel’s early days in North Yorkshire. “You wouldn’t want to take your eye off her in the stable, that’s for sure. She’s certainly quietened down in that aspect; she’d still let you know she was there, though, so you wouldn’t want to be completely switched off; she’s definitely better for knowing.

“I think over the years she’s mellowed in herself, she’s nowhere near as fiery as she was when she was younger; she’s definitely mellowed into a sort of a lady. One thing that has never changed, though, is her ability and this season speaks for itself. She’s in the form of her life this year.”

Fallen Angel was a brilliant two-year-old, winning the G1 Moyglare Stud Stakes to round off a three-wins-from-four-starts juvenile campaign. She was a classic-winning three-year-old, too, thanks to another Curragh Group 1 victory in the Irish 1,000 Guineas. Since then, she has been sold by owner-breeder Steve Parkin’s Clipper Logistics to the burgeoning Wathnan operation.

This year, though, the daughter of Too Darn Hot has taken her profile to a new level, winning her last three starts – all Group 1 races – to prove she’s the best female miler in Britain and Ireland, earning her an autumn tilt at the best colts around with her free-running, never-give-up style.

That way of racing was evident first-up at Haydock in May 2023 when Clifford Lee had her prominent in a seven-runner maiden and pushed her out for a straightforward win. That was Lee’s only time race-riding Fallen Angel as Danny Tudhope took the reins for her next five races, losing at first, then winning three of the next four before the Wathnan sale brought James Doyle into the picture, being the Qatari set-up’s retained rider.  

“I think if the clocks went back she’d probably have been unbeaten as a two-year-old,” Cowley said. “That was Danny’s first time on her, second time out. And you hear Karl speaking about her now, just about James getting to know how to ride her, and I think if you could go back in time Danny would have won that Listed race down at Sandown before going on to win the Group 3 and the Group 1 as a two-year-old.

“Don’t get me wrong, she’s not a difficult ride but the way she does things and the trust that you’ve got to put in the filly, like we saw at Newmarket (in the Sun Chariot Stakes), James started to really turn on the taps going through the four pole; they still had half-a-mile to go and he was already starting to make his way home, and then as they came down into the dip everything else was killed off in the race; she’d already done the damage before they’d even got to the business end of the race and I think knowing her and trusting her in that sort of way is the key.”

Doyle was in the saddle for Fallen Angel’s last two races at three, finishing second in the G1 Matron Stakes and then a solid fourth at her only attempt so far at 2000m in the G1 Prix de l’Opera. This season started with defeat when Kieran Shoemark rode her to sixth in the G1 Lockinge Stakes against the colts and continued with Doyle back up for third place in the G2 Duke Of Cambridge Stakes at Royal Ascot.

“I think she’s quite unique in that she’s just a big galloping filly at a mile and she just prefers to rock on and do her own thing,” Doyle told Idol Horse at Newcastle races four days out from British Champions Day.

“It’s kind of rare that you get a horse that jumps and just you basically squeeze her along from the get-go: usually you fill their lungs at various stages so she’s quite unique in that sense. I think I did probably try and control her a little bit when I first rode her and it wasn’t until I just chucked the reins at her that I seem to have gelled with her.

“I probably just rode her like a normal horse: if you land in front you don’t tend to go hard, your first furlong isn’t meant to be as quick as your last couple of furlongs, whereas with her she loves a consistent gallop. So, at first, I was trying to just ride a normal race and that’s not really what she wants to do.”

Cowley knows well from his experiences on the Middleham gallops that Fallen Angel has her own approach to things and leaving her to it is the best way.

“She just likes to get on with it and have it her way,” he said. “I think that’s mainly been the success to her training really, we found out early on she likes routine and she likes things to be on her terms. She’s definitely one to work with and not against.

“Don’t get me wrong, you wouldn’t notice her going up the gallops, you wouldn’t pick her apart from any of the others. On the way home she’d let you know she was there, she can get a little bit excited and fresh on the way home. That’s the way she’s always been even as a two-year-old her work was nice but never standout. She’d just do as much as you’d want her to do; very easy in that sort of aspect to train, she’d never overdo herself at home.”

After the Royal Ascot loss, Tudhope took back the reins for Fallen Angel’s head success in the G1 Prix Rothschild at Deauville when Doyle opted to ride Wathnan’s other runner, the Duke Of Cambridge winner Crimson Advocate. But Doyle was back up top for further wins in the G1 Matron Stakes and G1 Sun Chariot Stakes.

“I suppose she has to have improved a bit,” Doyle continued. “I’m not sure if the figures and things suggest that she has, but I think for any horse to win three Group 1s in a row, it’s not an easy thing to do. The reason for those slight dips, I don’t think she necessarily is a horse for the spring: she was woolly in the Lockinge and the ground was too fast for her at Royal Ascot.

The going is something connections are mindful of and Cowley said that while the expectation is she will go to the QEII, she would be “unlikely to take her part if there was firm in the description.”

He and Doyle both expressed confidence that the moisture Ascot holds in the ground will mean she’s there taking on the boys, displaying the game grit that complements her class so well.

“She is extremely tough, that’s one of her main attributes, she’s hard as nails,” Doyle emphasised. “She will fight, no doubt. We saw at Leopardstown, she doesn’t have to lead, you let her jump out and let her go her gallop and whether that’s in front or taking a lead, she’s very straightforward in that regard, it’s not like she has a set run-style where she has to be out in front and not have horses around her.

“I prefer when she’s got a bit of a target,” he added, “as long as the target’s going quick, like at Leopardstown.”

On the stable door beside her box her name is listed along with the major races she has won. The target now is for Fallen Angel to add Britain’s mile championship contest to that list, and with the plan being to kick on into next season, she will be given every opportunity to keep that competitive fire within her burning. ∎

David Morgan

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