The English page - Klug's winning run continues

The astonishing winning run of the Markus Klug stable, based at Gestüt Röttgen close to Cologne airport, continued last week at the Baden-Baden Sales & Racing Festival. Just a week after Erasmus (Reliable Man) had demolished the opposition in Germany´s top autumn race for two-year-old colts, Rock My Love (Holy Roman Emperor) completed the double by winning the equivalent race for fillles, the Preis der Winterkönigin. She did not win as easily as Erasmus, but she made all the running in very testing conditions under stable jockey Adrie de Vries, and although stable companion Suada (Maxios) was less than a length behind at the line, Rock My Love, locally-owned by Günter Merkel and bred by Ralf Kredel, never looked like losing.

Rock My Love has been given a provisional rating of 105, which means that Klug has both the top two-year-old colt and the top two-year-old filly in his yard. He also has the highest-rated four-year-old in Dschingis Secret (Soldier Hollow) and the highest-rated three-year old in German Derby winner Windstoss (Shirocco); as these two both remain in training, he has plenty to look forward to in 2018.

While at this stage Erasmus looks the outstanding candidate for next year´s German Derby, Klug also unveiled two more possibles for that race last weekend: Destino (Soldier Hollow) an own brother zo Dschingis Secret, won at Baden-Baden, while Weltstar, another son of Soldier Hollow and a half-brother to Windstoss, won at Bremen. They both scored easily enough and look the type to do even better at three. Klug has eleven entries in the Hamburg classic, including of course all these recent winners. Not surprisingly, Klug leads the Germans trainers´ statistics, both by number of winners and by prizemoney, by a clear margin and so looks highly likely to be champion trainer for the third time in five years.

However he cannot win everything, and it was Peter Schiergen who sent out the other group race winner at Baden-Baden, Stall Nizza´s homebred filly Navaro Girl, giving her Coolmore-based sire Holy Roman Emperor a nice double on the day; Navaro Girl is a half-sister to German Derby winner Nutan (Duke of Marmalade) and Group One winner Nymphea (Dylan Thomas) from a family that has produced numerous stars recently. Mario Hofer saddled the winner of the most valuable race of the meeting, the Ferdinand Leisten-Memorial (BBAG Sales Race) for two-year-olds. This was Julio (Exceed and Excel) who was a clear favourite and scored easily enough, although the value of the form in these sales races is sometimes questionable. He is unlikely to stay much beyond a mile and his main target for 2018 will be the Mehl-Mülhens-Rennen (2,000 Guineas).

Following last week´s remarks about Erasmus´ sire Reliable Man (Dalakhani) moving to France a couple of years after Dabirsim (Hat Trick,) whose fee has been raised to 30,000 euros for next year, now comes the news that another promising first season sire is to follow them to France. This is Pastorius (Soldier Hollow), winner of the 2012 Deutsches Derby and the 2013 Prix Ganay, who has spent the last four years at Gestüt Fährhof but has been sold to a syndicate of French breeders and will stand at Haras de la Hetraie in Normandy. His two-year-olds have shown great promise, and although his results have been less spectacular than those of Dabirsim and Reliable Man, it was always clear that his products will need time and will only be at their best at three or even older. This is a pity and the German stallion scene is now all the poorer, especially when one considers the sad early death of Campanologist (Kingmambo), who had a Group One winner only last week in Argentina. More stallion news is that Areion (Big Shuffle), one of the most consistently successful German stallions of this century, is to move from his present base at Gestüt Evershorst to Gestüt Etzean in 2018 and his fee has been raised to 11,000 euros. Now aged 22, Areion is currently enjoying his best season ever and is certain to be champion sire in Germany for the fourth time.

Looking forward to the weekend, we have a very good card at Hanover on Sunday, with three black type races, all with strong opposition from abroad, and a really exciting race at Munich next Wednesday, All Saints Day, a big holiday here. At the former track all races are sponsored by leading German studs and/or stallion owners. The main event is the Grosser Preis der Mehl-Mülhens-Stiftung (owners of Röttgen), a Group Three for fillies and mares, in which Godolphin´s Agathonia (Street Cry) could be the better of the two French challengers, while Mark Johnston, who always has a good line to German form, has a runner in both of the two listed races; Mail Order (Nathaniel) in the race for two-year-old fillies and Peach Melba (Dream Ahead) in the mile event.

When it was first suggested to the Munich race club that they should move the date of the Group One Grosser Preis von Bayern to November they were totally opposed; this was after all a summer race, which for years was run as the Aral-Pokal in mid-August. However the fields had become ever weaker, and since moving to its new date in 2013 the race has been restored to its former glory. It is the final Group One of the year in Europe and has once again attracted a very strong field, with extra spice added by the supplementary entry of André Fabre´s Waldgeist (Galileo), one of the best three-year-olds in Europe and beaten a short head when runner-up in the Prix du Jockey Club and two lengths when a close fourth in the Irish Derby. Fabre rarely sends runners to Germany, and when he does, they usually win.

Waldgeist seems certain to start favourite but the race is not that simple, as he is up against the three best older horses in Germany: Dschingis Secret (Soldier Hollow), Guignol (Cape Cross), who won last year, and last year´s Grosser Preis von Baden winner Iquitos (Adlerflug). There is very little between these three who have already met on a number of occasions. Nine were declared on Thursday but it will be amazing if the winner does not come from the above trio or Waldgeist, who runs in the colours of Gestüt Ammerland, owned by Munich race club president Dietrich von Boetticher, but is part-owned by Newsells Park and Coolmore. On official ratings he faces no easy task, but recent results have shown that the weight-for-age scale seems to give three-year-olds an advantage at this time of year and we expect him to win.

David Conolly-Smith