The English page - Hungarian hope comes home

Hungary has played quite a strong role in the history of thoroughbred racing, but this mainly refers to events that took place some 150 years ago.   However in the postwar period we can find the Hungarian champion Imperial (Hurry), who won their Derby in 1963 and also won the Hansa-Preis at Hamburg (in those a much more significant race than it is now) in 1964. He can be found in many top pedigrees today, usually in the fifth or sixth generation, as the sire of the Gestüt Röttgen-bred Prince Ippi. winner of Group One races in 1972/3. In a lengthy stud career at Röttgen Prince Ippi managed to sire two champions – Philipo, the German Derby winner in 1986, and much more importantly the filly Anna Paola, winner of the Preis des Winterfavoriten in 1980 and the Preis der Diana the following year. She has now achieved blue hen status as the direct ancestress of numerous Group One and classic performers all over the world, a recent example being Billesdon Brook in the Group One Sun Chariot Stakes last month.

Then there was the UK-bred “Budapest Bullet” Overdose a few years ago, and now the Hungarians appear to have another smart performer in Nancho (Tai Chi), winner of last Sunday´s Waldgeist- Grosser Preis von Bayern, the final Group One of the European season. This was not a great result for Germany, as the three foreign runners, the winner plus two Lope de Vega fillies trained by Ralph Beckett, finished first, second and fourth in a tight finish. It means that all five of Germany´s all-aged Group One races this year have all gone abroad, the first time that this has happened since the introduction of the pattern race system. It is also likely that quite a few of these races, and also some of the Group Two events (nine of the ten of which went abroad as well) will fail to meet the normal parameters required for their status. This is not only a German problem, as there appears to be a dearth of top class performers in Europe, and the French must also be worried about the huge number of their top races which have been won by British- or Irish-trained runners in recent years.

One consolation from the German point of view is that Nancho is German-bred. His breeder Heiko Johannpeter had just the one mare, Nantana (Paolini), who died after the birth of her second foal, and was in any case very modest. So it was no real surprise that her first foal fetched only 9,000 euros at the BBAG October sale in 2016 to a Hungarian owner Tamas Siklosi. He was soon gelded and at first he showed little and was sold on to his present owner Aleksandar Jovanovic. He started to show rapid improvement at three and has continued this improvement this year. He came to Baden-Baden last month as the winner of eight of his nine races in Hungary, including their top weight-for-age event, and proceeded to win a Group Three with extraordinary ease. That was however, to be frank, a very weak group race and the Munich event was much tougher.

Nancho, ridden as at Baden-Baden by Mongolian-born jockey Bayarsaikhan (“Enki”) Ganbat, was the first to show, but as expected Ladykiller (Kamsin) took the lead after a furlong from Nancho and Beckett´s supposed second string Manuela de Vega. The pace was at best steady and the order was unchanged until they reached the straight, where Nancho went on and immediately opened up a lead of two lengths. Manuela de Vega went in pursuit, while on the outside Ashrun (Authorized) and Beckett´s main hope Antonia de Vega made good progress. However Nancho kept on gamely and at the line was a neck in front of Manuela de Vega, with Ashrun and Antonia de Vega another neck and head back in third and fourth. The favourite Donjah (Teofilo), possibly feeling the effect of a hard autumn campaign, finished fifth. It was a first Group One success for Ganbat, who is attached to the Düsseldorf stable of Sascha Smcrzek. Ralph Beckett was satisfied with second and fourth place, though only narrowly beaten, and commented: “both my fillies ran well, but full credit to the winner who kept finding more and deserved to win”.

Nancho, who clearly goes well on soft/ heavy going, has been rewarded with a new rating of GAG 96 (=international 112), low enough for a Group One winner but realistic. He is the first Group One winner for his sire Tai Chi (High Chaparral), who stands at Gestüt Ohlerweiherhof. Tai Chi was Germany´s top 2yo in 2011, and was another soft ground specialist who never ran again after pulling up sore in the 2012 German 2,000 Guineas (on fast ground). He has made a good start to his stud career, despite some very small books, and had the sales topper at the recent BBAG October Sale. His fee remains unchanged at a very reasonable 4,500 euros and he is clearly one of the most interesting younger sires in Germany.

Nancho is inbred 4x4 to Acatenango (Surumu) and although the recent exploits of his branch have not been so exciting, hence the cheap price, this is a very distinguished family, tracing back to the Tesio-bred Nella da Gubbio (Nancho´s tenth dam) who has had an enormous influence on German breeding. There have been some decent performers trained in Central Europe recently, e.g. French Group Two winner Subway Dancer (Shamardal) or Nagano Gold (Sixties Icon), eighth in the Arc, but Nancho can certainly now claim to be the best horse currently in training East of the Elbe.

Germany´s longest flat race, the listed Silbernes Band der Ruhr, run over 4000 metres on very soft going at Mülheim last Saturday, was won surprisingly by the halfbred The Tiger (Ogatonango), bred and owned by Volker Schleusner and trained by his daughter Anna. He came from a long way back under the talented Sybille Vogt to outstay the opposition, who were headed by Khan (Santiago) with the rest miles back. The Tiger has been raised a whopping 24 kilos (about 50 pounds!) for this unexpected success. Khan, who won the Preis von Europa last year, is due to be sold as a potential stallion at Arqana´s breeding stock sale next month; he Is a half-brother to Kamsin (Samum), already doing well as a N.H. stallion in France.

The season is coming to an end, and the last German group race of 2019 is the Herzog von Ratibor-Rennen over 1700 metres at Krefeld on Sunday. This 2yo event is almost always won by a horse going on to better things at three. last year´s winner, Darius Racing´s filly Donjah, has been twice Group One-placed this year. Darius Racing is now represented by Near Poet (Poet´s Voice), acquired only this week. The Wittekindshof-bred colt was a very easy winner of his maiden at Dortmund a month ago. However his trainer Markus Klug also has the higher-rated Tickle Me Green (Sea The Moon) entered while Henk Grewe, by far the leading trainer of 2yo´s in Germany this year, also has two runners: Wonderful Moon (Sea The Moon) and Schwesterherz (Areion). The going is certain to be testing, and the winner will probably be the one who handles the conditions best. 

David Conolly-Smith