'Angel' Dominates for Second Nunthorpe Win
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Photo: Steve Davies/Racingfotos.com
Mecca's Angel rolls to victory in the Coolmore Nunthorpe Stakes
Mecca's Angel blistered to her second successive win the Coolmore Nunthorpe Stakes (Eng-I) at York, easily dispatching favorite Limato for a clear win in near course-record time Aug. 19.
David T. J. Metcalfe's 5-year-old Dark Angel mare was close up early in the 19-horse field and found another gear a quarter-mile out when shaken up by Paul Mulrennan to secure a two-length triumph. Mecca's Angel covered five furlongs on turf rated good in :56.24, just eight-hundredths of a second off the :56.16 course record set by Dayjur in the 1990 edition of the Nunthorpe.
"I'd love to say she's complicated and I have to do this and that," Mulrennan told The Guardian, "but I just have to point her. At the two pole, I said 'go,' and she did."
Mecca's Angel, who won last year's Nunthrope by two lengths from Acapulco, rebounded from lackluster performance in the King's Stand Stakes (Eng-I) at Royal Ascot by capturing the Kilfrush Stud Sapphire Stakes (Ire-II) by three lengths July 16 at the Curragh and kept her momentum going Friday. With the victory, she secured a fees-paid, automatic berth into the Breeders' Cup Turf Sprint (gr. IT) Nov. 5 at Santa Anita Park through the international Breeders' Cup Challenge series.
Mecca's Angel, who will start her broodmare career next year, could be pointed to the QIPCO Champion Sprint Stakes (Eng-I) Oct. 16 at Ascot while Paul Jacobs' Limato is aimed for the 6 1/2-furlong Turf Sprint.
Henry Candy was pleased with Limato's performance.
"The main hope we had was that the ground stayed fast and was unsuitable for her and in our favor, but you can't really think like that," Candy told Racing Post. "It was an incredibly quick time for rain-softened ground and I think he has run just as well at Newmarket, but he's not an absolute five-furlong horse."
Mecca's Angel has a 10-4-0 from 18 starts for trainer Michael Dods. A full sister to two-time group III winner Markaz, Mecca's Angel is out of the stakes-placed Atraf mare Folga. She was a 16,000 guineas ($27,129) purchase from Book 2 at the Tattersalls October yearling sale; Dods signed the ticket. Yeomanstown Stud, who bred her with Doc Bloodstock, consigned as agent.