The English page - Busy weekend ahead

We have to start this page with an apology, for missing last week´s page, which was due to technical problems. As a result our regular readers will have missed our comments on last Sunday´s racing at Dortmund, the ninth and final day of the German winter season. To be honest, we have not missed a great deal. The racing was for the main part of a very low level. Hardly any races were worth more than 3,000 euros to the winner and very few winners reached a German GAG rating above 70 (i.e.60 international). As always the meeting was dominated by course specialists. One horse, the 6yo gelding Alargedram (Lope de Vega) ran at all 9 meetings; his 16 starts here so far, 15 of them on the sand track have brought him so far two victories, three places and just over 7,000 euros, barely enough for a small one. Two provincial stables, those of Marco Klein in Mannheim and Uwe Schwinn in Beckingen topped the trainers´ table for the winter with 7 and 5 winners respectively; the former´s main jockey Tommaso Scardino topped his list with 10 winners. They all do very well with at the talent at their disposal, but with all due respect, this is not a great deal and they very rarely figure in black type events.

This is all about to change. This Sunday we have the first turf meeting of 2023 – at Düsseldorf. It has by far best card we have seen in Germany so far in 2023, featuring the first listed event of the season, the Preis der Fortuna Grand Prix Aufgalopp over 2200 metres. The name “Fortuna” refers to Düsseldorf´s best known team, who will be present (en masse, it is hoped, together with their fans). There are 11 runners, two of whom stand out according to their ratings: the 4yo Assistent (Sea The Moon), (trainer Henk Grewe/ jockey Leon Wolff) and the 6yo Mansour (Pavel Vovcenko/Sibylle Vogt). Assistent was fourth in last season´s German Derby, certainly the best form in this company, while Mansour is a strong front-runner and started last season with a bang, winning his first three starts, including this race at Düsseldorf; this track is ideal for front-runners and Mansour has also ran well in much better company and has several times been placed in group races.

In our opinion these arguments are in Mansour´s favour and we shall be surprised if the winner is not one of the pair mentioned above. Also of interest is the well-bred Wild Man from the champion stable of Peter Schiergen, but he is drawn on the extreme outside, always a disadvantage here. It is quite an open race, but definitely the best field so far seen this season. The action then follows fast and furious. Düsseldorf follows up with the first group race of the year, the Kalkmann Frühjahrs-Meile, and a week later the Group Two Carl Jaspers-Preis at Cologne, the first top event for older horses over middle distances. A few days later there follows the first major classic trial, the Dr. Busch-Memorial at Krefeld; this may give us the winner of the Mehl-Mülhens-Rennen (Two Thousand Guineas), to be run at Cologne on Whit Monday) while the first serious trial for the German Derby will be the Bavarian Classic at Munich on May 1st. The absolute top Derby trial is normally the Union-Rennen (Cologne, June 11th) and by now we have left the Baden-Baden Spring Meeting behind us (May 18th to 21st) and we are in the middle of summer.

There is also plenty happening all over the world. This weekend here is a major event in Australia with valuable Group One races at Flemington and Rosehill, while far more valuable as Dubai World Cup Day at Meydan on Saturday. This has a fantastic card with many of the best horses in the world competing. There are runners from many different countries and just as happened in Saudi Arabia recently, the Japanese field an extremely strong team and could well win several lof gte top events. There is only one German-trained runner taking part, that is Henk Grewe´s Sisfahan (Isfahan) in the Dubai Gold Cup. He ran very well in a similar race at King Abdulaziz Racecourse and we expect him to run another good race here. From the German point of view Algiers is also of interest in the big race itself. Trained by the Gosdens in Newmarket, he has been in extremely good form at the Carnival and is from a well-established German family. He should certainly finish in the money here.

David Conolly-Smith