GER Lyons has a stable full of quality, headed by the Group 1 winning two-year-old, Siskin. Another of that age group is Justifier, a €60,000 Goffs Orby Yearling who now has the distinction of being the first stakes winner in the first crop of the Irish National Stud’s Free Eagle (High Chaparral).

The colt was bred by Tally-Ho Stud from the five-time winner Pale Orchid, a daughter of Invincible Spirit (Green Desert). Failing to make the frame in five starts as a juvenile, Pale Orchid was offered for sale as a two-year-old by her breeder and sold to Tally-Ho for €26,000. At the time she was a half-sister to a stakes-placed runner and a daughter of the Group 1 Moyglare Stud Stakes winner Chelsea Rose (Desert King).

Pale Orchid raced at three for Tony O’Callaghan in England, winning five times. In the interim her half-sister Thawaany (Tamayuz) became a Group 3 winner in France and finished runner-up in the Group 1 Prix Maurice de Gheest, while more recently her half-brother Kew Gardens (Galileo) last year won the Group 1 St Leger and Group 1 Grand Prix de Paris.

Justifier is the fourth foal and third runner and winner for his dam, joining five-time winner Goodwood Crusader (Sir Prancealot) and the dual 2019 winner Ballistic (Kodiac). Waiting in the wings are a yearling filly by Mehmas (Acclamation) and a filly foal from the first crop of Galileo Gold (Paco Boy).

Winner of the Group 1 Prince of Wales’s Stakes at Royal Ascot, Free Eagle has four winners already from his first crop, with Justifier leading the way.

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