The English page - Spring not here yet

This column suggested last week that the winter was almost over and spring was just around the corner. However it seems that we were a little premature, it has snowed heavily in most parts of Germany. The winter season continues, and for the next two weeks the only racing – as was in any case scheduled-  will be on the sand track at Dortmund. There has been racing at Dortmund since 1893 and the current track was built in 1913, with the sand track added in 1981. It was intended to be a winter track and was floodlit for evening racing as well. At the time it was the first all-weather track in Europe. Now most leadihg European racing´nations, and no disrespect to Dortmund is intented when we consider Chantlly or Cagnes-sur-Mer (with  a new surface this year) in France or Lingfield and Kempton in England and Dundalk in Ireland, all with other surfaces than sand, have better facilities and on the whole better class racing, but still fulfils its function well enough, especially since the other German sand track at Neuss has closed down.

Last Sunday Dortmund stages 8 races, 7 of which were low-grade handicaps and the other a maiden race for 4yo´s plus. This coming Sunday however is similiar but with one significant difference: the first race on the card has the title “1. Rennen für dreijährige Pferde 2023” and that is exactly what it is: the first race of the season in Germany for 3yo maidens. This quite late in year, but as we explained here last week, the whole of German better season is scheduled towards the second half of the year because of the relatively late dates of the German Derby (this year July 2^nd) and Preis der Diana (Oaks) (August 6^th). The French, British and Irish have already had plenty of 3yo races, including quite a few black type events, as there classics come earlier, but there is no such urgency here.

Eight have been declared, most of whom are making their lifetime debut. The most experienced, and the likely favourite, is Gestüt Röttgen´s homebred Norton (Tai Chi) who ran four times last year and was placed twice. He is trained by Markus Klug, and is the only runner from any of the top stables. Klug has one of the biggest stables in Germany, and it is packed with promising classic contenders and it seems unlikely that Norton is one of his major hopes for this year. He could of course win easily on Sunday, but at first glance it does not look a very strong field. We shall probably have to wait until the top turf tracks reopen before we see a plausible contender for the Mehl-Mülhens-Rennen (German 2,000 Guineas at Cologne on May 29^th) or even the Deutsches Derby, which is still 12 weeks off. We can easily imagine some of the top classic hopes from the big stables making their seasonal debut at Krefeld on Aprll 28^th – with the Dr. Busch-Memorial, the major trial for the Mehl-Mülhens-Rennen, at Düsseldorf on March 23rd or April 16^th, with the first group race of the season (for older horses), Cologne on May 7^th with a top trial for the German 1,000 Guineas (at Düsseldorf on June 6^th), or the big Easter meetings at Hoppegarten and Cologne.

Cologne on April 24^th stages the Carl-Jaspers-Rennen (ex Gerling-Preis), the first race of the year for the best older horses; local trainer Peter Schiergen has already entered Tünnes (Giuiliani), arguably the most exiting horse currently in training here, while on May 1^st (“Labour Day”), we have the Bavarian Classic at Munich, the best early season trial  for the German Derby.

Of course many of the 3yo´s running in the next few weeks will have the Mehl-Mülhens-Rennen as their main target. As a general rule, German-breds are rarely specialist milers, and this race has been won repeatedly by foreign raiders, mainly from the U.K. The race closed early this week, but has had be reopened as there were only an inadequate 28 entries, including 15 trained in England. There were only 11 trained in Germany, an alarming statistic. This is certainly worrying and could be a sign of the times. The Carl-Jaspers and Dr. Busch also had to be reopened for the same reason, but closed this week with a some additional entries. The Mehl-Mülhens-Rennen, always the high point of an excellent sponsored card, has been won by many top milers and we look forward to more being entered by next Tuesday. 

David Conolly-Smith