FREE Eagle, a son of High Chaparral (Sadler’s Wells), has started his third season at Alastair Pim’s Anngrove Stud, and last year, while his book of mares was still small, he doubled the numbers he covered from the previous year. He deserves more support, and while Pim does not advertise a fee, opting for a private listing, I am sure that breeders who fancy using him will find he is value.

Stallions go in and out of fashion too easily, and many factors play into this. Free Eagle went to stand at the Irish National Stud in 2016 at a fee of €20,000, but this was to fall over time, and for his final two years at Tully a fee of €5,000 was advertised. He did not deliver the results that his starting price would have warranted, even though he sired a Derby runner-up in the lightly-raced Khalifa Sat.

It is clear that with time progeny by Free Eagle have shown ability and soundness, and he is proving to be highly versatile with the runners he gets. There is no reason why he would not get a high-class National Hunt performer in time, and he already has five blacktype performers in that code. In fact, one of these could be the one to put Free Eagle firmly on discerning breeders’ radars.

Just last month, David Pipe wrote about Free Eagle’s six-year-old son Windbeneathmywings. He said: “He is on the comeback trail and is in good form at home, but will not be heading to Cheltenham [for the Supreme Novices’ Hurdle]. Unfortunately we have run out of time to get him there. Rule changes this year means that all horses have to have a run over hurdles before Cheltenham.

Ineligible to run

“As we approach the twilight of the jumps season, and speaking with his owners, Geoff Thompson and Professor Caroline Tisdall, we have decided to put his hurdling career on hold until next season. He is ineligible to run in bumpers in Britain anymore, but he can still run in Ireland. The Punchestown Festival is now very much what we are aiming for.”

Windbeneathmywings won two of his three bumper starts for Pat Flynn after he was purchased as a yearling for €22,000. He was then sold to present connections and won a listed bumper at Ascot by 14 lengths. The world was his oyster, and he appeared on course to reinforce the belief that Flynn had in him, as he was quoted describing Windbeneathmywings as the best horse he has trained. Pipe holds the gelding in similar high regard.

Back on the level, Free Eagle’s five-year-old son Birdman, winner of the Listed Yeats Stakes at Navan and placed in the Group 2 Queen’s Vase at Royal Ascot, is flying the Free Eagle flag prominently, but down in Australia. Though seen as a stayer in Europe, his form dipped when he was sent down under, but trainer Chris Waller has him back to his best, and he is set to be one of the favourites for the 10-furlong Group 1 Australian Cup next weekend.

This has come about thanks to winning three of his last seven starts, all pattern races. Victory in the Group 3 Kingston Town Stakes at Randwick was first, and now he has progressed to land a pair of Group 2 contests, the Blarney Stakes at Flemington and then last weekend’s Peter Young Stakes at Caulfield. His three wins in Australia have ranged from eight to 10 furlongs. Birdman was trained by Jessica Harrington for his owner/breeder Cristina Patino, and hails from a family with which she has had enormous success.

Snow Fairy

In fact, you only really have to name just the best horse Mrs Patino ever bred and raced, Snow Fairy (Intikhab), and you will know the female line. That champion at three and four was a global superstar and won the Oaks in Ireland and England, the Irish Champion Stakes, the Queen Elizabeth Cup twice in Japan and the Hong Kong Cup, those six Group 1 wins earning connections just short of £4 million. Snow Fairy won the Group 1 Prix Jean Romanet too, but was later disqualified.

A couple of other group winners in this immediate family that will be familiar to readers are siblings Elusive Pimpernel (Elusive Quality) and Palavicini (Giant’s Causeway), and Big Bad Bob (Bob Back). National Hunt breeders won’t need reminding that Free Eagle is also by the sire of the great Altior.

Vauban rises again in Cheltenham week

SPEAKING of racing in Australia, how apt was it that in the week of Cheltenham, a previous star at that meeting was posting a second Group 3 win at Rosehill. This came after the eight-year-old won back-to-back editions of the Sky High Stakes.

The horse is Vauban (Galiway), a former resident at the stables of Cheltenham’s undisputed king, Willie Mullins, and what a versatile runner he has been. A Group 2 winner at York and runner-up in the Group 1 Irish St Leger, he was a listed winner in France, and in Australia he finished third in the Group 1 Tancred Stakes. Meanwhile, Vauban won three hurdle races, all Grade 1s, culminating with victory in the Triumph Hurdle.

Galiway (Galileo) was mentioned in last week’s column thanks to the Grade 1 success for his son, the Mullins-trained King Rasko Grey in the Grade 1 Turners’ Novices’ Hurdle, while this week his son Sealiway, whose first crop are two-year-olds, became the first of his peers to sire a winner. Galiway, only 15, stands for a fee of €30,000.

While the female family of Vauban is largely German in origin, runners in the first four generations have made their mark around the world, and indeed under both codes of racing. Vauban’s grandam is a winning half-sister to a number of horses worth mentioning. Her half-brother Masked Marvel (Montjeu) won the Group 1 St Leger and among his many good winners at stud is Teahupoo.

Waldgeist

Their half-sister, Group 3 winner Waldlerche (Monsun), is dam of the multiple Group 1 winner Waldgeist (Galileo), while another half-sister, the placed Bright Beacon (Manduro), has three stakes-winning offspring, all by Dubawi (Dubai Millennium). They include pattern winners Al Nayyir and New London, the latter getting close to a Group 1 win when runner-up in the St Leger.

Vauban’s fourth dam was one of the best three-year-old fillies in Germany exactly 30 years ago. Seven-time winner Wurftaube (Acatenango) numbers the Group 2 St Leger in Germany among those victories, and she bred an even better classic winner after going to stud, the Group 1 Deutsches (German) Derby hero Waldpark (Dubawi).

Blacktype-winning grandsons of Wurftaube include a number of horses placed at the highest level. Two I will mention are the 2024 Group 3 Prix des Chenes winner Misunderstood (Hello Youmzain) and Colonel Mustard (Makfi). Misunderstood finished two lengths behind Camille Pissarro in the Group 1 Prix Jean-Luc Lagardere.

Meanwhile, Colonel Mustard is still racing happily at the age of 11 for trainer Lorna Fowler. He won the Grade 2 Lismullen Hurdle at Navan, and has been placed four times in Grade 1 company.