Trainer Barry Hills saddled the first- and third-place finishers in the Shadwell Middle Park Stakes (Eng-I) Oct. 5 at Newmarket, with his Dark Angel taking the prestigious event for juvenile colts.
Strike The Deal, trained by Jeremy Noseda, ran second with Tajdeef securing the third spot.
Out in the center of track under Michael Hills, Dark Angel took the lead with a quarter of a mile to run in the six-furlong race and ran on gamely to beat Strike The Deal by a half-length. Tajdeef was just a neck from giving his trainer the one-two finishers.
It was the third Middle Park win for Hills, who took the event in 1987 with Gallic League and again in 1995 with Royal Applause.
The Acclamation colt was bred in Ireland by Yeomanstown Stud and races for Mrs. J. M. Corbett and C. Wright. He previously had won the Dubai Duty Free Mill Reef Stakes (Eng-II) and overall has been victorious in half of his eight starts this season. Dark Angel is out of the unraced English-bred Machiavellian mare Midnight Angel.
Hills did not completely rule out another race for Dark Angel this year.
"I don't know if he will run again this season but if he does it will be in the Dewhurst," Hills told The Racing Post. "He's won the sales race and the Mill Reef and he was beaten in between in the Flying Childers, but there were a lot of horses who didn't run up to form on that ground at Doncaster.
“I think he'll be a sprinter next year. I can't see him getting a mile but who knows.”
