The English page - Ante post betting

Ante-post betting on British and Irish racing is very popular, and in particular at the moment when there is a lively betting market on all 28 races to be run at next month´s N.H. Festival at Cheltenham. This is not the case in Germany, where there is only one race which sttracts serious ante-post betting, the Group One Deutsches Derby at Hamburg on July 2nd – incidentally the same day as the Irish Derby at The Curragh is run. That could well have quite an impact. There is also an ante-post market on the German Oaks (Preis der Diana at Düsseldorf on August 6th), but to nowhere near the same extent.

As of this week. there were 86 3yo´s left in this year´s German Derby, including Quantanamera, the top German juvenile of 2022 according to the recently-published GAG (GeneraLAusgleich= free handicap for last season. Quantanamera (Lope de Vega) was bred by Stiftung Gestüt Fährhof and was one of the top yearlings at the BBAG sales. She ran twice last season, an easy maiden in at Dortmund followed by an extremely impressive victory in the Preis der Winterkönigin at the Baden-Baden October meeting, generally regarded as Germany´s best race for 2yo fillies. Tnis victory, by 8 ½ lengths looked visually most impressive and gave her the high rating she now enjoys. Trainer Andreas Suborics obviously has a very high opinion of her and has entered her all over, including in both the German Derby and Oaks. No decision has yet been taken, but it seems quite possible that the Prix de Diane (French Oaks) will be her main target for this year.

This is clearly one of the problems with ante-post betting. One really needs to know for sure where the horse is going to run. In the case of the German Derby, still almost five months away, this obviously now the case. It also possible to supplement a horse at the beginning of Derby week; this is not cheap, costing the owner a cool 65,000 euros bit there are plenty of optimists in racing. There was indeed a supplementarlast year, Queroyal who finished ninth; however he was only beaten about six lengths, so it could be said that it almost paid off. Queroyal´s trainer Andreas Wöhler did however also a month later supplement the Australlan-owned Toskana Belle (Shamalgan) for last year´s Preis Prise Diana, and she brought home the bacon, so it can be done.

It is also possible for a filly to win the German Derby, although it does not happen very often. He last occasion was in 1997, when Borgia scored , and before that Lustige in 1955. There are several fillies high up in the German ratings for 2yo´s in 2022, In fact this seems to have been the case in European racing generally in 2022. In the European 2yo thoroughbred racehorse rankings for 2022, a list totally dominated by juveniles trained in Ireland and/r the United Kingdom, there are several highly-rated filies. Quantanamera is rated GAG 95 (= international 110) and is the only German-trained to be listed.

Of course it is quite possible for her to win the German Derby or the French and/or German Oaks, or any two of these races, and we certainly hope that she shines in 2023 and wins a Group One but as regards an ante-post bet, we would rather wait and see.

David Conolly-Smith