The English page - All eyes on Paris

There were four black type races in Germany last weekend, but with all due respect, they all had relatively weak fields. The most important was the Group Three Grosser Preis der Landeshauptstadt Düsseldorf over an extended mile There were two foreign runners, but to be honest, neither was up to genuine group class, and so a local winner could be expected. This was, rather surprisingly, the 4yo Kronprinz (Lord of England), owned by Abdulmagid Alyousfi, bred by Gestüt Etzean and trained by Peter Schiergen, who has had, by his standards, a very poor season so far but whose horses are now running much better. Kronprinz was ridden by Schiergen´s new stable jockey Lukas Delozier, who shot him into the lead two furlongs out and from that point on was never in any danger, scoring by four lengths. Kronprinz , a 16,000 euros BBAG yearling, has had rather a mixed career since winning the Dr. Busch Memorial last spring – beating subsequent German Derby winner Weltstar (Soldier Hollow) in the process – and also ran unsuccessfully in Dubai and Abu Dhabi in the winter, when he was briefly trained by Erwan Charpy, but he was back to his best here. He is an own brother to this year´s good 3yo miler King and would appear to be best over this trip, but Schiergen indicated that the Baden-Württemberg Trophy over ten furlongs at Baden-Baden could be his next race, however he has another important date first, as he is in the Arc sale on Saturday.

Hughie Morrison, whose Bella Ragazza finished last in the group race, had more reason to smile after the listed Winterkönigin-Trial for 2yo fillies, won by Romsey (Mukhadram), who mastered the front-running Sound Machine (Pastorius) inside the final furlong to win cosily by three parts of a length. “That was very easy,” commented jockey Gerald Mossé, while Morrison admitted that he was “happy but relieved, as I was not sure she would handle the ground.” The weather has changed, and for the first time since the spring we now have genuinely soft ground in Germany. Romsey was bred by the Lavington Stud and was bought in for just 800 guineas as a yearling at Tattersalls, what a remarkable bargain that would have been. Morrison suggested that she could return to Germany for the Group Three Ratibor-Rennen but she would meet much stronger opposition there.

At Hanover there were two listed races for fillies and mares on the card, the first of which was over 2200 metres and won by Gestüt Brümmerhof´s French-bred Anna Magnolia, the outsider of the field at 43-1, who just held on by a head from GB-bred and Azerbaijani-owned  Nathana Mnm (Nathaniel). The winner was a 42,000 euros  Arqana yearling, and as now a listed winner from the top family of Anna Paola is obviously an interesting broodmare prospect. The same goes for the 1400 metres winner, Dr. Christoph Berglar´s homebred Ghislaine (Soldier Hollow), who defeated French raider Castle of May (Raven´s Pass) by 1 ¾ lengths and is a half-sister to the recent good 2yo winner Grocer Jack (Oasis Dream), from a very good family; she is distantly related to classic winners Fame And Glory and Legatissimo. Her dam Good Donna (Doyen) will visit Sea The Stars next year. stated  Dr. Berglar: “that is certainly justified after seeing her first two foals – Ghislaine and Grocer Jack- do so well.” He also indicated that Ghislaine, who had run well at Baden-Baden in a much stronger race last time, would stay in training next year; “she is the type to do well at four,” said trainer Andreas Wöhler.

There were, most unusually, seven 2yo races in Germany last weekend, including Romsey´s listed race. The other six were all by won by very promising juveniles, and pride of place goes to Litex Commerce´s homebred Tabera, by leading first season sire Gleneagles out of the Group One winning mare Temida (Oratorio), who made all the running to win impressively on her debut over seven furlong at Düsseldorf. “I am speechless,” said winning jockey Filip Minarik, who is rarely lost for words, while trainer Miltcho Mintchev immediately put forward the Preis der Winterkönigin, Germany´s top race for 2yo fillies at Baden-Baden later this month, as her next race. Litex Commerce is a Bulgarian outfit, owned by Grischa Gantchev, and Tabera was bred at their Britton House Stud in Somerset, home also of Australian superstar Makybe Diva. 

These lines are written before Hoppegarten´s Preis der Deutschen Einheit on Thursday afternoon, so we shall leave that race until next week, but would mention two aspects: first, we confidently expect Laccario (Scalo) to win, and second that the race is now worth 32,000 euros to the winner, in line with almost all other German Group Three races. When the race was first run in 1991, under the name Prix Zino Davidoff, it was worth DM 280,000 to the winner, i.e. more than four times as much.

The big race this weekend in Germany is Cologne´s Group Three Preis des WInterfavoriten for 2yo´s over a mile, in theory Germany´s top juvenile race. In practice this has rarely been the case, in fact only Isfahan in 2015 has gone on to win the following year´s Derby since Lavirco (Königsstuhl ) twenty years previously. There are seven declared runners, three of them by Germany´s leading sire of 2yo´s Areion, including the two likely favourites, Gestüt Schlenderhan´s homebred Alson and Darius Racing´s Rubaiyat. Very few Areions stay the Derby distance, so it looks unlikely that there will be a successor to Isfahan and Lavirco in the field. Alson, who won the Zukunftsrennen at Baden-Baden in good style, is however apparently going for the Group One Prix Jean-Luc Lagardere at Longchamp on Sunday instead and will be ridden by Frankie Dettori.

Obviously the weekend races at ParisLongchamp outshine anything on offer in Germany; there are two Group One and three Group two races on Saturday and six Group Ones on Sunday, headed of course by the Prix de l´Arc de Triomphe with a very strong field this year. Enable (Nathaniel) is a hot favourite to win for the third successive year- a feat never before achieved – but we are hoping for a strong performance from Waldgeist(Galileo), owned 75% by Gestüt Ammerland and 25% by Newsells Park. Waldgeist has already finished behind Enable three times, including in this race last year, but we certainly hope to see him in the money again, conditions are ideal and he looks sure to run a big race. Also of great interest from the German point of view are Ghaiyyath (Dubawi), runaway winner of the Grosser Preis von Baden, and French King (French Fifteen), winner of three races in Germany this year, including the Grosser Preis von Berlin. Victory for either of those two would certainly boost the German form.

There are no German-trained runners in the Arc, but there are some in the supporting races. On Saturday, Markus Klug´s Satomi (Teofilo) runs in the Prix  de Royallieu and Andreas Wöhler´s  Ashrun (Authorized) in the Prix de Chaudenay. The most interesting German however could be Waldpfad (Shamardal) in Sunday´s Prix de la Foret. The seven furlongs trip should be ideal, and his form from Haydock. Baden-Baden and Newbury all reads very well in the context of this race. The Brümmerhof homebred, expertly handled by Dominik Moser, has been the main flagbearer for German racing this year and we hope he can crown his season with a top performance here.

David Conolly-Smith