Harry Angel wings it to Group One glory

The Godolphin three-year-old, trained by Clive Cox and ridden by Adam Kirby, was never headed as he prevailed from Tasleet and The Tin Man.

But all the field were playing second fiddle to the winner, who blasted home by four lengths, some performance in a Group One featuring some of the best sprinters in training.

The horse was labelled a machine by connections after the race and there could be no argument with that assessment.

Connections pondered long and hard about running the colt on such testing ground, but their boldness paid a handsome dividend.

Harry Angel, making light of the heavy ground, was in the front rank from flag fall and then quickened again just over a furlong out to put the race in safe keeping.

Cox said of Harry Angel: "This horse is so potent as he showed when he broke the track record here in the spring.

"You had to have a doubt as to how he could maintain it today on ground like that.

"It is so difficult to change gear on this ground. To win a race like that by four lengths against horses who have won in that going is some performance.

"This horse is just getting better and better. He is getting stronger and maturing all the time - and he is pretty special.

"There is a real possibility that he is going to stay in training next year and let's hope so because I am very proud to train a horse like him.

"It was a huge relief to see him win - it would have been easy to take him home and keep him safe, but he has proved that he is such an able horse on any ground.

"We know he is special and thank goodness we made the decision to run him, but it was as bad (going) as it gets out there.

"As far as soft ground goes, it was very deep,"

Next stop for Harry Angel, who won the July Cup at Newmarket in high summer, is the Group One sprint at Ascot on Champions Day.

Kirby, who rode the 2-1 favourite, said: "I'm a believer in a proper champion can win on any ground, but he's so fast I was a little bit concerned.

"It's a great team effort and all credit to Clive. I knew he'd won as soon as he picked up.

"He's a machine. He's got speed to burn and that's not how good he is, he's there now mentally and he'll keep on getting better."