Breeding & Racing in Germany

Following the publication last week of the International Classifications, we now have this week the publication of the German Free Handicap (Generalausgleich or GAG for short). While the former weights are in pounds (i.e. 454 grams), the latter are in kilos, but it is fairly simple to convert, and in any case the horses listed internationally are given the same (converted) ratings in their home countries.

Last weekend´s Irish Stallion Trail was by all accounts a big success despite horrible weather. Just about every Irish stud of note took part, from Coolmore to the Irish National Stud. This weekend sees the Route des Etalons de Normandie, also over two days, with 30 studs taking part and almost 100 stallions parading.

It is difficult to imagine such an event in Germany, although the “Tag des Gestüte” (Stud Open Day) in mid-September is very popular and 13 studs took part last year. Put simply, the quality here is good, but the quantity not enough, and also the distances are too great; there are major studs in Germany next to the Polish border (Görlsdorf) and others within sight of the Alps (Ammerland). Although most of the top stallions stand in the Rhine valley, or close to is, that also extends from the Dutch border down to Switzerland. And at the last count here are only 47 thoroughbred stallions standing in Germany, less than half the number in Normandy alone.

Our remarks in this column last week about problems at Neuss have been overtaken by events, and it now looks as if the fixture there on December 8^th will go down in history as the last ever in the 144 years of the racetrack. The Neuss town council, which owns the property, gave the race club (Neusser Reiter- und Rennverein) notice a year ago that their lease would not be renewed at the end of 2019 and have now confirmed this. The whole area was redeveloped by the town ten years ago and named Rennbahn-Park, but racing was almost a minor part of the activities staged there, which include an open air theatre with a highly regarded summer Shakespeare Festival. The race club has cancelled its scheduled meeting for this Sunday, and also its five meetings listed in early 2020. These meetings have all been transferred to Germany´s other sand track used for winter racing at Dortmund, with one exception, when Dortmund is not available for non-racing reasons.

The main problem of the German racing and breeding industries at the moment is the way that the whole industry has shrunk this century. The Direktorium this week published the fixture list for 2020, which comprises 151 race days, almost all of them on a Sunday or Bank Holiday. Except for the week long meetings at Hamburg and Baden-Baden, there is now virtually no racing on Saturdays (dominated by football for ten months of the year) or midweek. This is the lowest number of race days for many years, and compares to a high of 325 in 1995. This of course reflects the number of horses in training, now about 2,400 compared to over 5,000 in the late 1990s.

Owing to various religious holidays, during which gambling is forbidden, Germany has only one day´s racing in the second half of November and that took place on the Wednesday of this week at Dresden. The fixture, traditionally held on Atonement Day, is the penultimate turf meeting of the year in Germany, we now have only Boxing Day (weather permitting) at Mülheim to look forward to, as the racing on the sand tracks at Neuss and Dortmund is, with all due respect, not very inspiring.