Angel Of England

The problem is that day was nearly three years ago. In the 34 months since that Nottingham success, Angel Of England has not won again, and its recent form tells a difficult story: a second-place finish offers a flicker of hope, but a run of 13th and 14th placings sits alongside it, and the horse has not troubled the winner's enclosure in its last six races. Most of its career has been spent at Class 5 level — the bread-and-butter, everyday end of the racing ladder — and there it has drawn a complete blank, zero wins from 12 races. That is a curious situation: a horse that won at Class 2 but cannot win at Class 5.

Alan Brown, based at Yedingham in North Yorkshire, trains the horse. His yard has sent out 10 winners already this season, so the operation knows how to get a horse ready to win. Callum Rodriguez takes the ride most often, and together they have one win from seven races, which translates to a 14% win rate — meaning Rodriguez and Angel Of England have found the winner's circle in roughly 1 in every 7 outings together. That is actually a more encouraging number than the horse's overall career record suggests.

Angel Of England raced just yesterday, which means it is very much active and competing. Its best distance range appears to be between five and six-and-a-half furlongs, where it has won 1 of its 18 races at that trip. The honest summary is this: a horse that produced one brilliant day at Nottingham and has been largely searching for that form ever since. Whether it finds it again is the question its trainer is still trying to answer.