The English page - Strong weekend ahead

Over the past weekends although we had racing in Germany, they were really very ordinary, run of the mill meetings. Not much to write home about. Probably one of the more significant happenings was the lost of, in my opinion, one of the best and influential stallions Soldier Hollow, standing in stud Auenquelle since 2011 formerly in stud Roettgen, the son of In The Wings was a really tough racehorse. Owned by Helmut von Finck, he won stakes races as a 2-year-old and every year through till 7 years and won over 1 million Euro on the track. He was a four-time Group I winner and won 10 Group races in total. He also was German Horse of the Year in 2004. As a sire he produced Pastorius, winner of the Prix Ganay Group I and the German Derby as well as Group I winners Dschingis Secret, Ivanhowe, Weltstar, Serienholde and over Hurdles Arctic Fire and Saldier. He was definitely one of Germany´s top sires.  

Looking ahead to the coming weekend plenty of racing to look forward to in Germany. Munich has a 7-race moderate programme on Saturday to get us started, then Berlin-Hoppegarten is the highlight on Sunday and Hannover and Cologne take centre stage on Bank Holiday Monday with the first big event, the Coolmore St Marks Basilica German 2000 Guineas in Weidenpesch Cologne. 

Berlin´s Sunday race programme has the Comer Group International 53. Oleander Rennen, a Group II event over 3200 meters (2mile). The 100.000 EUR contest has seen nine horses stand their ground at present including two, Eskimo Komet and Seattle Creek to represent the Irish sponsor, Luke Comer. It’s a tough race to call but Lordano (Adlerflug) for the Gestuet Ittlingen and Marcel Weiss and Assistent (Sea the Moon) trying this trip the first time for Eckhard Sauren and Henk Grewe, look the two main players. Lordano beat Assistent a head in their last clash in the Carl Jaspers Preis in April over 2400 meters (1 ½ mile) and the longer trip suits the former even better. Alessio (Teofilo) for Peter Schiergen has his first start of the new campaign after finishing second in the Italian St. Leger last November. Waldadler, Crystal Estrella or Nastaria could all cause an upset.  

Up in Hannover on Monday and their 10-race programme features two listed races, the Grosser Preis der Hannoverschen Volksbank, for fillies over 1400 meters (7f) and the Grosser Preis der Neuen Bult for 3-year-old fillies over 2200 meters (1m 3f). In the 7-furlong race there are plenty of foreign entries including from France and England amongst the 14 declared. Only seven entries in the 3-year-old contest but they include the Study of Man filly Lingua Franca for Kirstin Rausing and Sir Mark Prescott from England. Novemberrose (Camelot) and the twice unbeaten Weltbeste (Soldier Hollow) could be the best of the home team. 

And so to the big one, the first Classic, the 2000 Guineas in Cologne. The 11-race card also has the Weidenpescher Cup a listed race over 1850 meters (1m 1f 100 yrs.). 13 still hold entries in this one including Ayani (Starspangledbannner) from Jessica Long in Sweden and Wild Pansy (Siyouni) from Henri Alex Pantall in France. 

The 2000 Guineas has 9 entries at the moment with Devil's Point (New Bay) from David Menuisier´s English stable the mount of Silvestre de Sousa. Also, from England comes the Jane Chapple-Hyam Calyx son Habrdi and Ten Bob Tony (Night of Thunder) could represent Ed Walker. Maigret (Counterattack) from Bohamil Nedorostek´s stable look best of the home team. He is three from three and was impressive his only start this year when taking the Group III Dr. Busch Memorial in Krefeld. The Frankel son, Penalty, from Henk Grewe stable was unlucky to get beat by Iron Man (Tai Chi) last time in cologne having looked very good on debut in Dusseldorf previously. They will be a stern test for any of the foreign challengers. 

Plenty then to keep us interested over the coming week!

Shannon Spratter