Breeding & Racing in Germany

Sir Mark Prescott´s 4yo filly Alpinista, as expected, proved too strong for her German rivals in last Sunday´s Group One Preis von Europa at Cologne, leading one and a half furlongs out and quickly asserting to win by 1 ½ lengths from the CD specialist Nerium (Camelot) with the German Derby winner Sisfahan (Isfahan) running on late to go third. The first half mile was run at a crawl with none of the jockeys wanting to make the running until Nerium went on and injected some pace into the race. He led by 4 lengths coming into the straight, but Luke Morris was aware of the situation, soon had Kirsten Rausing´s grey into position and the filly lengthened in really good style to cut down the leader and soon put the race to bed.

Last week´s “Grosse Woche” (= “great week”) at Baden-Baden must be regarded as a great success. It was the first meeting at the Iffezheim racecourse under the new management team Baden Galopp, and, apart from a few minor hitches and teething problems, all went well and the final three days of the meeting were run in glorious late summer weather, also a huge positive so even the weather played its part. The only big problem was when the first race on Saturday had to be voided after a false start, but that is hardly the fault of the race club. The feedback has been overwhelmingly positive: “pure joy” according to Deutscher Galopp president Michael Vesper, and “all´s well that ends well” according to senior handicapper Harald Siemen´s weekly blog.

Last week´s racing in Germany was very low key and there was not a single black type race at the three meetings (Hanover, Mülheim and Krefeld); the most valuable event was the BBAG sales race for 3yo´s over 1750 metres at Hanover. These races are difficult to evaluate as the conditions often result in considerable weight differences, so it was no real surprise that last Sunday´s winner, aptly named The Conqueror (The Gurkha) was one of the lighter weights. This is no way meant to be negative, as he won nicely by two lengths and never looked in serious danger of defeat after taking the lead early in the straight. It was also a fine piece of race planning by trainer Andreas Wöhler, who owns the colt and also bred him (together with his wife Susi).

As a result of travel complications resulting first from Brexit and then from the covid-19 pandemic, there were no British-trained runners at all in German races for the first seven months of 2021. However the ice was broken last Sunday at Hoppegarten, where the card, featuring the Group One Grosser Preis von Berlin backed up by three listed races, was arguably the strongest of the season so far in this country, and with well over 8,000 racegoers in attendance it had the best atmosphere as well!

The possibility of making supplementary entries to an important group race, usually for a much increased entry fee, can often completely change the complexion of the race. We saw this at Munich last Sunday and we shall see it again at Düsseldorf this coming Sunday. The main event at Municvh was the Group One Grosser Dallmayr-Preis, Germany´s best middle distance race. This looked like cutting up badly until the news came that French trainer Jerome Reynier was going to supplement his 6yo gelding Skalleti (Kendargent), one of the best horses in Europe over this trip, last time out winner of the Group One Prix d´Ispahan (form well boosted since) and last October runner-up in an extremely strong field for Ascot´s Champion Stakes. These pieces of form- and plenty more posted by Skalleti, were vastly superior to anything his German rivals could claim, and not surprisingly he started as long odds-on favourite.