Angel Shared

Newmarket is where Angel Shared has become genuinely special. It has won four of its last ten races at the track, a win rate of 40 percent that marks it out as a proper course specialist. That last win came just four weeks ago, on 21 August, suggesting the horse is in current form and knows exactly how to handle the Newmarket surface. Add to that a proven preference for fast, dry ground—where it has won four races from eleven attempts, a 36 percent return—and you can see a clear pattern. Get Angel Shared to Newmarket on a good day, and it becomes a genuine winning prospect.

The partnership with jockey Dougie Costello has been the making of the horse. Costello has ridden Angel Shared 17 times and won six races together, a 35 percent win rate that is significantly better than the horse's overall numbers. That kind of understanding matters; Costello clearly knows how to get the best from this horse. Trainer Steph Hollinshead, based at Upper Longdon in Staffordshire, has built a yard with form this season, and Angel Shared represents one of the better performers coming out of that stable.

Recent form has been choppy, though. In the last six races, Angel Shared has finished out of the placings twice, which suggests inconsistency creeping in. But with a race just yesterday, the horse is clearly still competing regularly, and at Class 4 level—where it has won four of ten races—it remains competitive. For a five-year-old that has spent three years in training, Angel Shared has carved out a niche: a Newmarket specialist that thrives on fast ground and has learned to win at a decent clip with a rider who understands exactly how to manage it.