Angel set for second chance at Classic glory in Ireland or France

Fallen Angel is likely to get another stab at Classic glory in either Ireland or France after failing to run up to expectations in the Qipco 1000 Guineas.

Winner of three of her four juvenile starts, including a Group One victory in the Moyglare Stud Stakes, the daughter of Too Darn Hot was sent off favourite to provide trainer Karl Burke with a first Classic success on home soil at Newmarket on Sunday.

Fallen Angel travelled well for a long way over the Rowley Mile, but flattened out in the latter stages to finish eighth of 16 runners, albeit beaten less than five lengths by surprise winner Elmalka.

Burke said: “Obviously we were disappointed, but I don’t think there was a lot more we could have done in her prep. She looked fantastic in the paddock beforehand and she was fit – she didn’t have much of a blow on her afterwards.

“The immediate reaction is she probably wants a little bit further now and she switched leads a few times coming down the dip. Danny (Tudhope) thought with the ground drying out that track wasn’t her track, but they were all excuses and the bottom line is we didn’t run fast enough on the day.”

The Spigot Lodge handler is keen to let the dust settle before firming up the next plan of attack, but is minded to either head back to the Curragh for the Tattersalls Irish 1,000 Guineas or cross the Channel for the Prix De Diane – a race he won with star filly Laurens six years ago.

“Where we go, the immediate reaction was that if the ground is right we could go back to the Curragh, or, and I haven’t discussed it with Steve (Parkin, owner) yet, we could possibly go for the Prix de Diane instead,” he added.

“She’ll have an easy-ish week this week, we’ll pick up her next week and make some serious decisions then really.”

In the previous afternoon’s Qipco 2000 Guineas, Burke saddled a potential dark horse in Night Raider, who had been hugely impressive in winning his first two starts on the all-weather at Southwell.

Following a pleasing racecourse gallop at Newmarket’s Craven meeting, optimism was high despite a major step up in class on his turf debut, but he trailed home 10th of 11th runners, leaving Burke considering a drop in distance on his next start.

He said: “Everything went wrong for him, he had his mouth open and got very unsettled in the stalls and banged a hind leg. He just got very worked up and jumped out of the stalls, and ran like a scalded cat for three furlongs and that was it.

“We can put a line through that, but that said whether he’s going to stay a mile is looking doubtful if that’s his attitude, in that class anyway.

“I thought he’d definitely stay a mile, but we’ll probably be looking to drop him back in trip now and it’s a possibility that we could run in the Sandy Lane at Haydock at the end of the month and that will tell us whether we’re a Commonwealth Cup horse over six furlongs or a Jersey horse over seven.

“He’s still a lovely horse and we knew he was very much a horse for the future. He’s a big-framed horse with a bit of growing and strengthening to do, so we’ll just sit on him for a couple of weeks and not make any rushed decisions, but they’re the options I think.”