TDN Weekend December 2016 Issue 9
Issue link: https://www.e-digitaleditions.com/i/1056824
winner. How apt, then, that Coolmore agreed to send Wings of Eagles back here for his new career, M.V. Magnier having acquired him as a yearling at Ar- qana for €220,000. "His dam got all her strength and char- acter from Kendor," Gibson says. "Her mother Rotina was one of the founding mares for my parents here; they bought her just as they were taking over. And s o w e k n ow t h a t t h i s w h o l e a t t i t u d e Ys oldina has, 'I am the boss,' came from the sire. Wings of Eagles, when he was here at the sale, was a show-off: he knew he was the best. And when I saw him later running at Saint-Cloud, you could see the same, that he knows he's the king. He's ver y clever. I've never seen a horse as clever as him. He's full of energy, plein de vie." Though the family did not travel to Epsom—it was the end of the foaling season and, like most people, they sus- pected that a longshot in the Bally- doyle team might be a pacemaker—it was still an indelible family moment. " We were all together, at home on the stud, and it was ver y special," Gib- son recalls. "It makes us so proud that he is a grandson of Rotina. His time is [ a m o n g ] t h e b e s t i n D e r by h i s to r y , b e t ter than his sire's; and I think with- out his injur y he'd have won the Irish Derby too. "He covered 65 mares, his fertility is good, and he is getting more and more