Yeomanstown Stud answer call to stand Dark Angel on southern hemisphere time
Fresh from siring a hat-trick of winners at Royal Ascot last week, Yeomanstown Stud stallion Dark Angel (Acclamation) will be offered to serve a limited number of mares on southern hemisphere time this year.
The ever-improving grey, who has risen from an opening fee of €10,000 to his current mark of €60,000 (approx. AU$95,100), has attracted interest from southern hemisphere breeders in recent years due to the exploits of his high–class sprinters and milers, such as four-time Group 1 winner Battaash and Harry Angel, who has further advertised his profile in Australia while standing at Darley in NSW since 2019.
Yeomanstown had resisted the temptation to offer him on southern hemisphere time, but with interest in Dark Angel growing over recent years, they have opted to give it a go.
“For several years people had been inquiring about it, but up until this point we had resisted,” Yeomanstown farm manager David O’Callaghan told ANZ Bloodstock News. “But we’ve had half a dozen phone calls in the last three or four weeks alone, and there seems to be interest there. So we’ve said we’ll do it for a small number of people and see how it works out.”
By Acclamation (Royal Applause) and out of Machiavellian (Mr Prospector) mare Midnight Angel, Dark Angel climbed up the juvenile ranks to win Middle Park Stakes (Gr 1, 6f) at Newmarket on his penultimate start before being retired to stud. He finished his career with four wins from nine races, earning £341,306 in prize-money.
After standing for an initial fee of €10,000, which went down to €7,000 before his first crop hit the track, Dark Angel has not looked back.
His first crop returned 27 winners in Britain and Ireland from 62 runners, and his service fee has gradually increased to the €60,000 he stands at now. He has 71 stakes winners to his name, eight of them at the elite-level, and O’Callaghan explained why he is such an attractive option to breeders with southern hemisphere interests.
“He’s an outcross from all the southern hemisphere lines and beyond that, so he’d be suitable to cross with most southern hemisphere mares,” he said.
“He’s done very well at stud here. He’s a sire of champion sprinters, some very good milers and good two-year-olds who are better at three, better at four, better at five. They’re tough, sound racehorses and that’s what people want.
“I think the fact that he’s an outcross, and that they’re precocious and high-class sprinter-milers, make him of interest in the southern hemisphere.”
The County Kildare-based stud has had enquiries about Dark Angel from breeders situated on both sides of the world.
“There’s a mixture of both,” O’Callaghan said when asked where the interested parties are based. “Some northern hemisphere people who have mares they wish to send down to Australia and other southern hemisphere people who have mares in the northern hemisphere that they wanted to be covered before they brought them down.”
Dark Angel finished runner-up in the sires stable at Royal Ascot last week with three winners and a third place, losing out only to Frankel (Galileo), who also had three winners but additionally managed two seconds and a third.
Two-year-old Berkshire Shadow opened Dark Angel’s account in the Coventry Stakes (Gr 2, 6f), before Indie Angel landed the Duke Of Cambridge Stakes (Gr 2, 1m) and Real World took the Royal Hunt Cup (1m).
“We were very pleased. He sired three last year and he’s just behind Frankel this year with three. We were sorry to see the rain come as we thought he might’ve had a fourth,” said O’Callaghan.
Dark Angel has already had some on-track success with his progeny in Australia, as Lindsay Park’s Valac took the 2019 Queens Cup (Gr 3, 2500m) and RM Ansett Classic (Listed, 2400m).
He is also the sire of the John O’Shea-trained Berdibek, who finished runner-up to Stockman (Tavistock) in last Saturday’s WJ McKell Cup (Listed, 2000m) at Rosehill.