In a tremendous coup for the Queensland breeding industry, Raheen Stud has announced it will stand Group I winning Dark Angel sprinter/miler, Top Ranked (IRE), this spring.
The eye-catching grey was a multiple stakes winning Group 1 performer in England before heading down under to the stables of Annabel Neasham.
In just four Australian starts, Top Ranked would capture the time honoured Group I Epsom Handicap (dead heating with Ellsberg), win the Group 3 Bill Ritchie, run Verry Elleegant to less than two lengths in the Group I Chipping Norton – on a heavy deck – and finish third to Lost And Running in the $1 million The Hunter.
“It probably sounds like a strange thing to say, particularly given he won an Epsom and a Bill Ritchie at his last two starts, but I reckon we didn’t get to see the best of Top Ranked here in Australia,” Raheen Stud’s Basil Nolan muses. “Annabel, Hugh Bowman and his owners, Australian Bloodstock, all had huge opinions of the horse and considered him a super chance in the Cox Plate before suffering a career ending injury in a track gallop.”
A son of super sire Dark Angel, who clocked up his 100th stakes-winner in the UK on Saturday, Top Ranked won his only start at two. He was then unbeaten at three – winning six of his first eight starts – then captured the Group III Superior Mile at Haydock, the Listed Doncaster Mile and finished third to Palace Pier in the Group I Lockinge Stakes before heading to Australia.
“He (Top Ranked) is an unbelievable horse,” Neasham said after the Epsom. “Topweight, heavy track, second-up after such a long long-off … there were so many things that were against him, but he’s won an Epsom. We always thought he was going to be a really good horse here in Australia”.
Bowman concurred: “Annabel has just done an amazing job with Top Ranked to bring him back from a slight injury in the Chipping Norton. It’s no real surprise though because we know just how good this horse is.”
A grandson of multiple Group II winner Madame Dubois, Top Ranked is from a half sister to Group I winner, Champion Colt and sire Count Dubois (sire of four Group I winners) and Group I winner and sire Indian Haven.
Other close relations include Group winner and Group I producing sire Imperial Stride.
Luke Murrell from Australian Bloodstock, which continues its Group I success with high achieving, well bred imports such as Top Ranked, firmly believes the stallion has everything it takes to be a success at stud in Australia: “On talent and class, Top Ranked was the best horse we’ve ever purchased.
“It’s such a shame that we only saw him at 80% in Australia as this horse had a turn of hoof that was just freakish. The one thing I have noticed in these Dark Angels is that they not only run at 2, but they all train on.
“What I think is very important is that Top Ranked retires with a. Timeform rating of 122.”
The only stallions to retire this season in Australia – with a higher rating – are Anamoe ($121,000 fee) and State of Rest ($44,000).
“Dark Angel has produced 100 stakes winners – among them an absolute superstar in Battaash and Harry Angel to name but two,” Nolan sums up.
“Interestingly, the speed influence in the Dark Angel side of the pedigree comes from Acclamation, a Champion and world renowned speed sire, who has sired recent QEII winner Romantic Warrior, plus a host of other international sires.
“Dark Angel is operating at over 7% stakes horses, while his runners to winners is over 65%. What’s interesting with Dark Angel’s 99 stakes winners is that 81 of them are winners from 1000m to 1500m! … that’s really going to the Queensland mare population and all the speed races we have.”
Top Ranked will stand at an introductory fee in 2023 of $7,700 including Free Return .
For further information, phone Basil Nolan on 0407 140 711.
