THE Mill Reef Stakes must have been close to losing its Group 2 status at times in recent years.

Plenty of the winners have been forgettable, and only a few of them have significantly exceeded the level of form usually associated with the grade.

But Ribchester gave the race a boost in 2015 with the best winning performance in the modern era, and this year’s winner, Harry Angel, promises to be one of the better ones judged by the clock.

The son of Dark Angel (who himself won the Mill Reef in 2007) was a maiden having only his second run but went off favourite and won with authority by two and a half lengths from Perfect Angel, posting a timefigure of 112.

That is ninth-fastest by a two-year-old in Britain and Ireland this year, and there is every indication that Harry Angel will build further on this effort. His maiden dam managed third at a mile in the mud at Bellewstown and there must be a chance that Harry Angel will stay a bit further than this six furlongs.

Stamina appears to be no problem for Algometer, who might well have been a major player in the St Leger given how that race played out, and it says plenty for him that he overcame a rather tactical race at 11 furlongs for the Legacy Cup earlier on the card to beat Dartmouth.

Algometer’s time was worth a figure of just 94, with his last-four furlongs sectional of 49.4s underlining that he had shown late speed.

Meanwhile, the runner-up lost little caste in defeat given that he carried a 5lb penalty, though he does seem a notch below the top level despite his Hardwicke Stakes defeat of Highland Reel.