Breeding & Racing in Germany

By far the most important race run in Germany last week was Sunday´s Group Three Preis des Winterfavoriten over a mile at Cologne, one of only four German group races for 2yo´s and traditionally the best of them. As the race title implies, the winner is automatically regarded as the favourite for next season´s German Derby. In actual fact this has rarely been the case. The only Cologne winner this century who went on to win the following season´s Derby was Isfahan (Lord of England) in 2016, bred and trained by Andreas Wöhler and running in the colours of Darius Racing.

It has been a miserable year in many respects and good news has been rare indeed, in thoroughbred racing as in most other walks of life. It is therefore with great pleasure that one is able to announce that last weekend was hugely successful for the German racing and breeding industry. The weekend started with positive results on Saturday (a German national holiday) from Hoppegarten, continued with more success on the first day of Longchamp´s Arc meeting, a frankly amazing result from the Arc sale on Saturday evening, and finally the Prix de l´Arc de Triomphe itself, the most important race of the year in Europe, if not the whole world, in which the French-trained but German-bred and German–owned In Swoop (Adlerflug) finished strongest of all to take second place, beaten only a neck. and earned no less than 685,200 euros for his owner-breeder, the Ullmann family´s Gestüt Schlenderhan.

The most important race run in Germany last week was the Group Three 136^th Deutsches St. Leger at Dortmund on Sunday. The race is named after the 18^th century British officer Antony St. Leger, who founded the original race, which has always been run at Doncaster, in 1776. It is the world´s oldest classic race, and is still regarded as a classic, even though it has been opened up to older horses in almost every racing country, including Germany. Only in the U.K. is it still a race restricted to three-year-olds. However last Sunday´s edition was certainly curious, in that not only were there no 3yo´s at all in the field, all seven runners were 4yo´s.

Baden-Baden´s „Grosse Woche“, Germany´s most important race meeting of the year, started well last weekend and the signs also look positive for the remaining three days of the meeting, on Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Last week started well enough with the BBAG Yearling Sale, where results – although as expected well below the 2019 figures – certainly satisfactory enough with a clearance rate of 74% and the total turnover down 21%. The average of 41,372 euro was down 26% on 2019, but better never seemed likely in these much more difficult days. Highlight of the sale was the Sea The Stars filly out of Sanwa (Monsun), a full sister to German Derby winner and successful young sire Sea The Moon, who was sold for 820,000 euros, equalling the sale record, to Gestüt Ammerland. Godolphin, usually the biggest purchasers here, were conspicuous by their absence, but local customers filled the gap.

The Grosser Preis von Baden last September was the race that really put Ghaiyyath (Dubawi) on the map, when he scored by 14 lengths from Donjah (Teofilo) and Laccario (Scalo). At the time it looked to be possibly just a flash in the pan, especially as Ghaiyyath then flopped (on very soft ground) in the Arc.