The English page - final black type races of the season

The last few days have seen the final black type races of 2016 in Germany – a listed race over seven furlongs at Dortmund on Sunday and a listed race over eleven furlongs at Dresden on Wednesday (a public holiday in parts of Germany). The latter event went to Iraklion (Areion), trained in Hanover by Christian Sprengel, who came from a long way back to win comfortably enough from the Czech raider Dally Hit (Ad Valorem), a bargain buy who cost just 1,500 euros at Tattersalls Ireland. With all due respect, this was not a great race and none of the runners had an international rating of 100.

The Dortmund race was a totally different matter and it was probably the strongest field seen in a listed race in Germany this year, with four foreign raiders: Moyglare Stud´s Joalliere (Dubawi), trained in Ireland by Dermot Weld, two three-year-old fillies owned by Godolphin and trained in S.W. France by Henri-Alex Pantall, and Eoghan O´Neill´s Holy Spring (Dylan Thomas), also trained in France.

Joalliere was a hot favourite, starting at 13-10; not only did she have the best form, but trainer Weld and owner Eva-Maria Bucher-Haefner were present to see her run, and she was partnered by the Weld stable jockey, and perennial Irish champion, Pat Smullen. And he needed all his strength to get her home after she had taken the lead well over a furlong out and looked briefly like winning easily. However she began to tread water in the final stages and You´re Back (Street Cry), in the Godolphin second colours but according to the betting, the first string) came flying and only failed by a short head to get up. None of others got into the race, with Holy Spring dropping rigjht out after making much of the running, and Godolphin´s second runner Sense of Fun (Distorted Humor) never seen with a serious chance in sixth place.

Dermot Weld was clearly delighted with this last gasp victory for his well-bred filly: ”She is group-placed in Ireland and now a listed winner here, so she will now be retired to join the Moyglare Stud broodmare band. It was a great race and a great ride by my jockey.”

Dresden´s Wednesday meeting was the last turf fixture of the year in this country. We still have seven racedays to come, all on the sand tracks at Neuss and Dortmund. These fixtures are all low key with no valuable races, and it seems now to be a suitable occasion to look at the German statistics for 2016, as there are unlikely to be any significant changes.

Darius Racing, the nom de course of Munich-based businessman Dr. Stefan Oschmann and his wife Shahpar, is leading owner for the first time. Virtually unknown in racing circles five years ago, they have made a meteoric rise to the top of the tree and the Derby success of Isfahan (Lord of England) capped a fine season which included four more group race successes. They are followed in the statistics by three of Germany´s biggest owner-breeders – Gestüt Wittekindshof, Gestüt Röttgen and Stall Ullmann.

The Germans – rather illogically - organize their trainers´ championship by the number of races won rather than by prize-money. By this measure Markus Klug is leading trainer for the second time. His lead over Andreas Wöhler looks big enough for him to hold on. He had an excellent year with six group races won and was placed several times more; although he was beaten in quite a few photo-finishes, he finished the year with a flourish and was also the most successful trainer of two-year-olds, giving him plenty to look forward to in 2017. His domestic winnings of over 1.3 million euros  actually exceeds his 2014 total, when he was champion for the first time and had the outstanding Derby winner Sea The Moon in his yard.

Andreas Wöhler was second to him then, and is again in the runner-up spot this year, but in terms of earnings is well in front with about 1.8 million euros. He had a magnificient season with thirteen group race successes in Germany, including the two most valuable races of the season, the Derby and Oaks (Preis der Diana). He also trained Germany´s only Group One winner abroad, Potemkin (New Approach) in the Premio Roma.  His masterpiece was however bringing Protectionist (Monsun) back to form after his disastrous 2015 season in Australia. Although his career ended on a rather dismal note, Protectionist was the star of the German season and his victory in the Group One Grosser Preis von Berlin the highlight of the year.

Four stallions dominated the German with pride of place going to Soldier Hollow (In the Wings) with earnings of about 1.34 million euros, with Serienholde in the Preis der Diana his biggest winner, but also a string of black type victories to his credit. The 16-year-old, owned by Gestüt Park Wiedingen but standing at Gestüt Auenquelle, has had his fee raised to 25,000 euros for 2017; this extremely high by German standards, but by international levels he could still be a bargain. Areion (Big Shuffle) had another great year and has also reached seven figures, while Adlerflug (also by In the Wings) also did very well with a smaller number of runners, while Lord of England´s (Dashing Blade) winnings are mainly due to Isfahan´s Derby win. Adlerflug definitely looks one for the future; he has an extremnely high strike rate and his fee has been more than doubled to 12,000 euros for 2017, when he will be standing at Schlenderhan, while his normal base at Harzburg is renovated.

Stiftung Gestüt Fährhof had another good year and lead the statistics for leading breeders by a decent margin which would be even more if foreign earnings were included (Potemkin et al), and is followed by Gestüt Röttgen and Gestüt Wittekindshof. In fourth place comes trainer Andreas Wöhler and his wife Susi, who only have two mares but one of them bred Derby winner Isfahan. Czech-born Filip Minarik will be champion jockey for the third time; in terms of earnings he is overshadowed by Wöhler´s main jockey Eduardo Pedroza, who is now enjoying a winter stint in Qatar.

As the remaining races this year seem to be of only minor interest, this will be the last English page of 2016; we hope to be back at the end of March, when the 2017 turf season gets under way, and wish all our readers a happy and successful winter.

David Conolly-Smith