IT is a rare event for an Epsom Derby winner to be available as a stallion to Irish National Hunt breeders, but that is the situation with Wings Of Eagles.
He moved in 2019 to The Beeches Stud in Co Waterford, having spent the 2018 season in France at the Haras du Montaigu of his breeders, Gilles and Aliette Forien, who sold him for €220,000 as a yearling. He now has two-year-olds in France, while his first Irish crop are now yearlings, 130 of them.
Aidan O’Brien trained Wings Of Eagles, who showed considerable promise as a two-year-old, winning second time out at Killarney in August before being sent to Newmarket for the Listed Zetland Stakes, in which he was a close fourth to Coronet, who won the Group 2 Ribblesdale Stakes at Royal Ascot the next season.
His fourth and final outing that year was in the Group 1 Criterium de Saint-Cloud, won by Arc hero Waldgeist, though he was ahead of subsequent Melbourne Cup star Rekindling.
Wings Of Eagles raced three times in 2017, before an injury ended his racing career. His first start, early in May, was in the Group 3 Chester Vase, a close second to his stable companion Venice Beach. This earned him a place as one of Aidan O’Brien’s six runners in the Group 1 Epsom Derby and, although he was a 40/1 outsider, he finished fastest of all the 18 runners to win by three quarters of a length from Cliffs Of Moher and champion three-year-old Cracksman, with Capri, Venice Beach and Rekindling all unplaced.
Wings Of Eagles almost completed a classic double four weeks later in the Group 1 Irish Derby, when in a thrilling finish he was a very close third, only a neck and a short head behind his stablemate Capri and Cracksman, with Waldgeist fourth. It was discovered after the race that Wings Of Eagles had suffered a broken near-fore sesamoid joint, which was repaired with a pin in his leg, but he was unable to race again.
Pour Moi, a son of Montjeu, is the sire of Wings Of Eagles and he was also an Epsom Derby winner in 2011. He has sired the winners of over 200 races worldwide, including half a dozen blacktype winners on the flat, before becoming another of Coolmore’s National Hunt stallions at Grange Stud.
Ysoldina, the dam of Wings Of Eagles, won in France and was second in the Group 3 Prix de la Grotte and third in the Group 1 French 1000 Guineas. She is dam of four other winners, including group-placed Sparkle Roll.
The next dam, Rotina, produced four group winners, notably Belle Et Celebre who scored in the Group 1 Prix Saint-Alary at Longchamp, and Whortleberry, a Group 2 winner in France and Italy.
WINGS OF EAGLES (FR), Bay 2014. Jt 4th top rated 3yr old colt in Ireland in 2017. Won two races, £1,062,511, from 1 mile ½ furlongs to 1½ miles, at 2 and 3 years including, Investec Derby Stakes, Epsom Downs, Gr.1, also placed second in MBNA Chester Vase, Chester, Gr.3, and third in Dubai Duty Free Irish Derby, Curragh, Gr.1.
Retired to Stud in 2018, first crop now two year olds.
Stands at: The Beeches Stud, Lismore, Co Waterford, Ireland
Contact: Robert McCarthy, Bobby McCarthy or Peter Kenneally
Telephone: (353) 58 56254
Email: thebeechesstud@outlook.com
Web: www.coolmore.com
Fee: €5,000