Angel stamps his class in McKenzie Stakes win
Trainer Clinton Mcdonald fears Angel Capital may be too brilliant to run a strong 1600m after his return victory at Moonee Valley.
Angel Capital resumed to take out the Listed McKenzie Stakes (1200m) on Saturday with McDonald hopefully plotting a course towards the Group 1 Caulfield Guineas (1600m) on October 12.
The slowest into stride under Ben Melham, Angel Capital ($5) rounded up the opposition in the straight to score a three-quarter length win from Bosustow ($13) with Sergeant Major ($12) a further 1-½ lengths away third.
Angel Capital showed his potential with a debut win at Cranbourne over 1000m in April before McDonald decided on a trip north to winter the colt where the now three-year-old was unplaced in two runs.
McDonald said he was still trying to work out whether Angel Capital was purely a sprinter or a middle-distance galloper.
“I do have concerns, is he too brilliant to be a miler,” McDonald said.
“He’s just got that electric turn of foot and for him to do that today against good opposition, it’s encouraging and he’s only going to get better.
“He’s a big horse and on this tight track we were a little bit worried about that, but Benny assured me he would get the job done and he did.”
McDonald is planning to head to the Group 3 Caulfield Guineas Prelude (1400m) on September 21 which may be the fork in the road for the colt.
That will give McDonald the idea as to Angel Capital’s ability to run the mile of the Guineas or whether he will need to freshen the colt for the Group 1 Coolmore Stud Stakes (1200m) at Flemington on November 2.
Melham did a lot of the early work aboard Angel Capital but was having his first ride on the colt under race conditions on Saturday.
“He’s a very good colt,” Melham said.
“He obviously won very impressively at his first start, then he didn’t run to the best of his ability in Queensland.
“He had been flying at home and it was good to see him come out and win in the fashion that he did today.”
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