The English page - German fixtures 2019 (part two)

As expected, there was a good international entry for the Group Two Oleander-Rennen in Hoppegarten on May 12th, Germany´s top race for stayers, including several from the U.K. There were also some U.K. entries for Cologne´s Carl Jaspers-Preis (ex-Gerling) a week earlier. Obviously any possible runners from the U.K. will depend on what happens in the British parliament and if the crazy catastrophe called Brexit goes ahead, and in what form. The EU is clearly getting fed up with the unbelievable incompetence of the British government, but it is essential that we have some agreement in place by the end of this month regarding the movement of horses (and much else besides!), otherwise we could be in a situation where it would be virtually impossible for horses trained in the U.K.to run in German races. We devoutly hope that this situation will not arise and that a solution can be found.

The Deutsches Derby at Hamburg on July 7^th marks a watershed in German season. Before that date there are very few black type races where this season´s 3yo´s will meet older horses; from then on, most of the top races, including five of the remaining Group One races will be for 3yo´s and up. The exception is the Henkel Preis der Diana (German Oaks) at Düsseldorf on August 4^th, and foreign-trained fillies often show up for this event. However the local fillies are usually quite strong, and the only foreign winner so far was the Newmarket-trained Dancing Rain (Danehill Dancer) in 2011; she had previously won the Oaks at Epsom and later took the big fillies´ race at the Ascot Champions Day in October, so she can be regarded as the best ever winner of this historic race, which dates back to 1857 and is now the second most valuable race in the German calendar. Dancing Rain was later sold to Darley for 4.2 million guineas, and most of the recent German-bred winners of the race have been sold to Japan, but 2018 winner, Stall Ullmann´s homebred Well Timed (Holy Roman Emperor) has been retained and now has a date with Sea The Stars.

Before that we have some good racing in July, notably the very popular Bad Harzburg meeting, which goes on for five days and includes several valuable handicaps. Bad Harzburg. situated in a popular resort in the Harz mountains always attracts big crowds and is one of the few German trackswhich still stage N.H. racing. One of their events, traditionally known as the Altes Braunschweiger Jagdrennen (Old Brunswick Steeplechase) has now been rebranded as the German Grand National, although any similarity with the race to be run at Aintree three weeks on Saturday is hard to discover. Prize-money is about one-hundredth of the original version, but the track is still hoping to get some international entries.

The final day of the Bad Harzburg meeting, July 28^th, also coincides with the Group One Grosser Dallmayr-Preis at Munich, Germany´s most important ten furlongs event which always attracts a strong field. The race is well placed halfway between the Eclipse Stakes and the big meetings at Deauville and York. Last year we had of the best renewals, with Godolphin´s Benbatl  (Dubawi) scoring from another U.K.-trained raider Stormy Antarctic (Stormy Atlantic), with Va Bank (Archipenko) and Iquitos (Adlerflug) taking the minor places. Benbatl went on to further Group One glory in Australia and also finished a brave runner-up to Winx in the Cox Plate; he is officially rated the best horse to run in Germany last year and the three who finished behind him at Munich also later boosted the form still further.

2018 saw Godolphin and trainer Saeed bin Suroor bring off a great treble in Germany´s big three late summer Group Ones. A fortnight after Benbatl´s Munich victory, Best Solution (Kodiac) followed up for the Newmarket team by winning the Grosser Preis von Berlin at Hoppegarten and three weeks later the Grosser Preis von Baden at Iffezheim. These are arguably Germany´s two top races over the classic distance of 2400 metres. The Grosser Preis von Berlin was of course  orihginally run in Hoppegarten, back in 1888, but has moved venue several times; after the second world war it was run for a long time as the Grosser Preis von NRW in Düsseldorf, but it has taken on a new lease of life since moving back to Hoppegarten in 2011. The first modern winner at the track was none other than Danedream (Lomitas), who not only completed the double at Baden-Baden but went on to win the Arc.

The Grosser Preis von Baden has been the main event at Baden-Baden´s Grosser Woche ever since the meeting was first staged in 1858, and has always been one of Germany´s most prestigious races. The Grosse Woche runs this year from August 24^th to September 1^st, with the Grosser Preis on the final day. Main feature on the first weekend is the Group Two Goldene Peitsche (Golden Whip) over  six furlongs, Germany´s premier sprint event, which has repeatedly been won by raiders from the U.K. and France. Last year the first three were trained in England, Austria and France, and German sprinters are on the whole not up to top international standards. Unfortunately the race now suffers from the fact that there are several other valuable races at this distance at about the same time.

The Grosse Woche also has midweek racing, on the Wednesday and Thursday, which were this year in danger of being cancelled, as they are lossmakers for Baden Racing, who run racing here. Luckily they have been saved, but Thursday´s usual main feature, the Group Two Oettingen-Rennen (no longer sponsored by Darley) over a mile has been moved to Saturday. This certainly strengthens the weekend programme, as there are now two group races on both Saturday and Sunday. Saturday also has the Group Two T. von Zastrow Stutenpreis  for fillies, while Sunday´s main supporting feature is the Zukunfts-Rennen, Germany´s first group race of the year for 2yo´s.

Once the Grosser Woche is over, racing settled into autumn. Three weeks later there is the Group One Preis von Europa at Cologne; when this race was first run, more than half a century ago, it was a very strong event, but there are now many competing races, both in Europa and overseas, and the  Preis von Europa has been struggling a bit in recent years. This is certainly not the case with the final Group One of the season, Munich´s Grosser Preis von Bayern, to be run this year on November 3^rd. This was originally the Aral-Pokal, run in mid-August at now defunct Gelsenkirchen, but after several changes of name and venue and it has settled here and fills a definite gap in the European pattern. Last year it was won by Iquitos, probably the most popular horse in training in Germany; he has now retired to stud at Gestüt Ammerland, situated on Lake Starnberg, not far from Munich and owned by race club president Dietrich von Boetticher.

The other autumn races worth a mention are the top juvenile events, the Preis des Winterfavoriten at Cologne on October 6^th, the fillies´ equivalent, the Preis der Winterkönigin during Baden-Baden´s October Meeting on the 20^th, and the Herzog von Ratibor-Rennen on November 10^th at Krefeld, the final pattern race of the German season.

David Conolly-Smith