Harry Angel© Photo Healy Racing
Clive Cox hopes Harry Angel has escaped from his nasty incident in the stalls before the Diamond Jubilee Stakes without any serious damage.
The dual Group One winner became upset upon loading for the feature event on the final day of Royal Ascot and unbeknown to anybody, including his jockey Adam Kirby, he had a leg stuck on the running board when the starter let them go.
He was subsequently very slowly away, costing him any chance of victory, and returned with a cut to his leg, but Cox is hopeful the injury will heal naturally.
However, the trainer believes it is too early to suggest he will be defending his July Cup title next month.
“He’s a little bit stiff this morning but a couple of hours after the race he’d improved a lot,” said Cox.
“He has a cut on his fetlock joint which was very concerning. That was flushed and the vets did a very good job at the racecourse and were very helpful indeed.
“The concern was potential infection but we’ve treated that accordingly. In the meantime the trauma of what happened needs to be taken into account.
“I was unaware that his leg was up on the stalls when I watched the race through my binoculars, it was clearly more traumatic than just a cut leg and clearly explains his run.”
He went on: “I’m hoping in light of the situation that we may have got out of this lightly. It’s a superficial cut but it’s very deep. It’s on a joint so there’s not a lot of flesh there.
“He’ll be quiet for a week to protect it. He was in tremendous form going into the race but it’s a bit early to say if he’ll be running in the July Cup, we’ll just sit on it for a week.
“I couldn’t have been more pleased with him going into the race and it’s not unusual for him to be aggressive in the stalls, but I hope we can rectify it.
“It was a very difficult situation for Adam (Kirby), he had no hope from the way he broke and he was that far behind.
“Adam’s concern was getting his foot back in the iron, he didn’t know his leg was up on the stalls.”
