The English page - Elliptique wins in Munich

Last Sunday´s Grosser Dallmayr-Preis at Munich, Germany´s most important race over the distance of ten furlongs ended with the success of French-trained Elliptique (New Approach), supplemented by André Fabre and running in the colours of the Rothschild family with Frankie Dettori in the saddle. It was a shrewd move by the trainer, who had identified this race as a potential target for the five-year-old, who had never before run in a Group One. He also had the right jockey on board in Dettori, who know all about riding big-race winners and delighted the crowd with his jump on dismounting in the winners enclosure. “André called me and told me to ride a waiting race, so that is what I did,” he said afterwards.

As expected front-runner Ito (Adlerflug)made the running, but he could never get away from the field and was beaten two out, where Articus (Areion), who had chased the early pace, went on briefly. However the sped horses were coming strongly now, notably Iquitos (Adlerflug), who however had to be switched to the worst ground on the inside, while Royal Solitaire (Shamardal), Potemkin (New Approach) and Elliptique were all finishing strongly on the outside. Potemkin hampered Elliptique at the furlong marker, where Royal Solitaire briefly looked like winning, but Dettori quickly had Elliptique running on again and he quickened well to lead inside the final 100 yards and win by half a length from Royal Solitaire, with Potemkin the same distance away in third, Iquitos a short head back in fourth, and Articus a close fifth.

From the point of view of the German handicappers, this was a disappointing result, as Elliptique came into the race off a rating of 110, hardly good enough to win a Group One. He had won the Grand Prix de Vichy last year and had more recently finished runner-up in La Coupe, but these were both Group Three events. However the handicappers came to the view, confirmed by the ratings of the placed horses, that Elliptique had been underrated and was certainly better than his rating, and raised him to 115. Punters were of course undeterred by such calculations and made him a narrow favourite at 27-10.

We are likely to have the same scenario again this Sunday at Düsseldorf, where Dettori has been booked to ride another supplementary entry, Hugo Palmer´s Architecture (Zoffany) in the Group One Henkel Preis der Diana (German Oaks). This time however Architecture is not only certain to start favourite, but she is clear top-rated by none pounds. She has already finished runner-up in both the Oaks at Epsom and the Irish Oaks at the Curragh and boasts easily the best form in the race. In addition, Hugo Palmer has already won this season´s German 1,000 Guineas at the same course Düsseldorf and for the same owners Lael Stable.

Of course the race still has to be won, and the German Oaks has thrown up plenty of surprise results in recent years. Just about every German filly of class will be in opposition; 18 were declared to run, but as the course limit is 16, the two bottom-rated have been eliminated. Markus Klug has no fewer than seven runners, with his main jockey Adrie de Vries on Gestüt Röttgen´s homebred Kasalla, one of six (!) Soldier Hollow fillies in the field.

The draw is always significant here when there are large fields. Architecture is drawn 10, in the middle, which is fair enough. However the two other British-based jockeys riding in the race have been less lucky – Freddy Tylicki on Meergörl (Adlerflug), winner of main trial, and Andrea Atzeni on Parvaneh (Holy Roman Emperor), also a good winner earlier in the year, are drawn 15 and 16 respectvely. Near England (Lord of England – who sired last year´s winner as well as this year´s German Derby winner) is drawn in 8; she won the Hamburg trial on very heavy ground, so any more rain (not expected) would be in her favour. Two daughters of Soldier Hollow with good draws are Dhaba and Serienholde in 6 and 7, but – if we leave out Architecture – this race looks wide open with no obvious outstanding German candidate.

The main supporting feature is the listed Henkel Trophy, in which Frankie Dettori rides Yorkidding for Mark Johnston, but this looks quite a tough race. Fair Mountain (Tiger Hill), third in last year´ s German Derby is top-rated here, but his recent form is less exciting.

There is abundance of good racing this weekend, not only in Germany, but in the U.K., Ireland and France as well, but any readers in the vicinity of Newmarket are urged to go racing on Saturday, where many of the races on the strong card, headed by the Sweet Solera Stakes, are sponsored by the German racing and breeding industry. Join them in the paddock marquee and enjoy a glass of German white wine!