The English page: Racing & Breeding in Germany 29

Hanover was the centre of activity for German racing fans last weekend. On the Saturday there was a symposium  sponsored by the Owners and Breeders Association at a local hotel, which attracted 300 guests and was by all accounts a big success. On the Saturday there was a strong card, featuring a group race and two listed races, with all events sponsored by leading studs.

The main event, the Grosser Preis des Gestüts Fährhof for fillies and mares, ended with a most excitIng finish, two heads separated the first three home, and as so often at this track, it was the jockey who managed to grab the stands rail who was Early Morning successful, in this case Filip Minarik on (Mamool). The winner, at six the oldest runner, is trained at Lengerich by Dr. Andreas Bolte and owned by him in partnership with an old school friend. The mare was winning her first stakes race and is expected to come back for more next year; she was bred by the late Jan Nienstädt, a jockeys´ valet, but goes back to a well-established line of Gestüt Wittekindshof, the best-known member of which is the triple Group One winner and successful broodmare Elle Danzig (Roi Danzig). It was good to see a relatively small team win this prestigious event.

The complete race video, photos and full result here (under "Renndetails")/Early Morning/No. 1: click! 

The action now moves south to Munich, where the Group One Grosser Preis von Bayern, the last Group One of the German season, will be run on Sunday. This race was originally known as the Aral-Pokal and run in mid-August at the now defunct Gelsenkirchen-Horst track, now a housing estate. After they closed down, it was run under a variety of different names at Cologne before moving to Munich four years ago. However the mid-August date proved to be unfavourable and only very small fields contested the first two runnings at Munich, as had also been the case at Cologne. The race club at Munich therefore applied to have the race run in October, but not surprisingly, this met with strong opposition from the French, British and Irish racing authorities, all of which have major meetings in that month.

It was therefore proposed to stage the race on All Saints´ Day, November 1^st, a major holiday in Germany though it happens to fall on a Sunday this year. Munich were reluctant, but in fact it has turned out to be an excellent move; the first running on that date last year was won by Germany's top older horse Ivanhowe (Soldier Hollow) from a strong field with 14 runners, and on ratings it was the second-best race run in Germany in 2014. On Sunday it has a much small field, eight, but certainly with the same quality.

French challenger Prince Gibraltar (Rock of Gibraltar) looks likely to start a strong favourite. On his previous trip to Germany the four-year-old showed an excellent turn of foot to win the Grosser Preis von Baden (as did Ivanhowe last year) and followed up by finishing seventh for the second time in the Prix de l´Arc de Triomphe – and not beaten far either. That is clearly the best form in the race, but it should not be forgotten that Ito (Adlerflug), representing the same connections as Ivanhowe, would have been favourite to win at Baden-Baden, had he not had to be withdrawn a couple of hours before the race because he was found to be running a temperature.  Ito, a strong front-runner, has won five of his eight starts; although he was slightly below par when only fourth last time in the Preis von Europa, he was possibly still feeling the effects of whatever had ailed him at Baden-Baden. He can certainly be expected to turn the tables on Sirius (Dashing Blade), last year´s winner of the Grosser Preis von Berlin, who was runner-up at Cologne, but well held when third to Prince Gibraltar before that.

The dark horse of the race, and by far the most interesting runner, is Irish hope Success Days (Jeremy), trained in Maynooth by Ken Condon and to be ridden by regular pilot Shane Foley. Success Days has not run since finishing tailed off in the Derby at Epsom, for which he started at 12-1 fifth favourite. He had won two of the top Irish trials before that, the Ballysax Stakes and Derrinstown Stud Derby Trial, both on very soft ground, and it was felt that the much firmer going at Epsom had proved to be his undoing. However Condon has explained that he suffered a stress fracture in that race, and spent the next five weeks standing in his box. However he also said, “we won´t be running him again on firm ground, and I regard him as a spring and autumn horse.”  Condon added, “he´s fine now and I think he´s back to the form he showed in the spring.” There has been very little rain in recent weeks in Munich, but also precious little sunshine, and the ground should be suitable.

Fair Mountain (Tiger Hill) is another lightly-raced three-year-old in the field; he was third in the German Derby three months ago but was well beaten on his only start since. The two other three-year-olds in the field have a lot to find on form, while Empoli (Halling), at five the oldest horse in the line-up, has become rather unreliable.  We have a fascinating race here between the undoubted Group One class of Prince Gibraltar and the potential of Ito and Success Days, and it is by no means impossible for the last-named to become the first Irish-trained winner of a major German race for many years.

David Conolly-Smith