Under The Radar: Curling eyes more Festival glory with Angels Dawn

The hunters’ chase plan for Angels Dawn was hatched at the end of last season.  Owner Alfred Sweetnam and trainer Sam Curling put their heads together.  She might be a bit high in the handicap now, they figured.  Nine rising 10.  But she was in tremendous form, she still retained all her enthusiasm for racing.  They would give her one more season at it, aim for the St James’s Place Hunters’ Chase at . 

There were a couple of routes to qualification.  Win two open lightweights was one, so Curling set the Yeats mare on that path.  He sent her to Boulta in November for what tuned out to be a two-horse race, and she won just as you would expect a 1/20 shot to win. 

Then he took her to Dromahane, just after Christmas.  That wasn’t as straightforward on paper, but she still went off favourite, and lived up to market expectations, coming home six lengths clear of Ryehill. 

That form looks even better now than it did then, with Ryehill coming out and winning the hunters’ chase at Naas three weeks ago. 

You can argue that Ryehill improved for his run at Dromahane, his first outing for almost eight months, and he did.  But even so, O’Sullivan’s horse put up a fine performance at Naas, surviving a bad mistake at the third last fence and keeping on well to come clear of Ontheropes and Its On The Line. That’s strong form, and it’s not a negative when you are assessing Angels Dawn’s chances in the Hunters’ Chase on Friday week. 

“She’s very well,” says Curling.  “She came out of her run at Dromahane very well.  She worked the other day at Punchestown after racing and we were very happy with her.  Philip Enright rode her.  So we’re on track now for Cheltenham, all being well.” 

Angels Dawn loves Cheltenham.  It was there, at the 2023 Festival, that she won the Kim Muir. Curling watched from the chute at the side of the track, where the horses go out onto the track from the paddock.  He watched on the big screen in front of him, and he watched as the horses came towards him, Pa King still motionless towards the near side on Angels Dawn’s back, over the last, Barry O’Neill and Stumptown on the far side, Patrick Mullins and Mr Incredible chasing them as they raced up the hill away from the trainer and towards the winning line. 

They didn’t catch them either.  Angels Dawn by a neck. 

“That was amazing,” says the trainer.  “The best moment of my training career.  Definitely.  The way we’re set up, we’re set up to sell.  We wouldn’t have many opportunities like that.  That was special.” 

He gets a big kick too out of seeing one of his graduates go on to better things.  Two days before Angels Dawn won the Kim Muir, the Supreme Novices’ Hurdle – the Michael O’Sullivan Supreme Novices’ Hurdle, as it will be known this year – was won by Michael O’Sullivan and Marine Nationale, a horse who was broken by Curling. 

The 2018 Supreme Novices’ Hurdle Summerville Boy also resided at Skehanagh Stables as a youngster, trained by Curling to win a bumper at Killarney on his racecourse debut in May 2017, before moving to Tom George and winning the curtain-raiser at the Cheltenham Festival for him and Roger Brookhouse less than 12 months later.  

Curling trained the 2020 Martin Pipe Hurdle winner Indefatigable as a bumper horse.  He trained the 2021 Albert Bartlett Hurdle winner Vanillier to win his point-to-point at Dromahane.  

Those horses were always moving on.  That’s the business, that’s the model, and it is a hugely successful model.  That’s the way Curling’s operation is set up.  Keeping them, training them and racing them on, is exceptional, and Angels Dawn fits easily into that category.  

In truth, she was never going anywhere. “Alfie bred her,” says Curling.  “She was never for sale.” 

Alfred Sweetnam bought Angels Dawn’s dam as a yearling at Goffs for €50,000, and she raced five times for Tommy Stack, winning a maiden as a three-year-old over a mile and a half at Roscommon on heavy ground. 

She has passed on her appreciation for some cut in the ground to her daughter, so a soft-ground Cheltenham Festival would be a positive.  The plan now is for Angels Dawn to retire to the paddocks at the end of this season, with a date with Harzand on the cards. 

Curling doesn't really remember Ventana Canyon, the horse whom his dad – renowned artist Peter – owned in partnership with Philip Myerscough, and who was trained by Edward O’Grady to win the Arkle by 20 lengths.  He remembers the excitement though, he remembers the celebrations, he has heard all the stories.  He knew from an early age how big a deal a Cheltenham Festival winner was. 

Angels Dawn went back to Cheltenham last year, a year after she had won the Kim Muir, and was running a massive race in the 2024 renewal of the race when she came down at the second last fence.  She probably wouldn’t have beaten the winner Inothewayurthinkin, but she probably would have been second.  

“She obviously likes Cheltenham,” he says, “and that’s always a huge help when you are going back there.” 

He has Wonderwall too, winner of his two point-to-points and also on track for the Hunters’ Chase.  

“Wonderwall is a nice horse, he goes well,” says Curling.  “He’s jumping better now than he used to and, if he can get into a nice rhythm from early, he could run well.  Rob James will ride him.” 

Pa King will ride Angels Dawn, as he has done the past two years, as the plan comes together nicely.