The English page - Better three-year-olds appearing

There have so far been only a handful of races for three-year-olds in Germany this year, and they have almost all been for maidens, but the pace is now beginning to hot up and there will be plenty of classic hopefuls making their seasonal appearances this month. That said, last Sunday´s race for three-year-old maidens at Cologne over 1850 metres looked extremely strong, and it looks certain that the first four home will all be involved in black type races before long; all four are entered in the IDEE 150^th Deutsches Derby, to be run at Hamburg on July 7^th,, as well as in other top races.

The first two to finish are both sons of the Coolmore stallion Camelot, arguably the best son of the extremely influential Montjeu; Camelot, whose fee has been raised to 40,000 euros this year, has made a very strong start to his stallion career. Accon, the winner by 1 ¾ lengths, was bred by Gestüt Hof Ittlingen and knocked down to owner Holger Renz as a  BBAG yearling for 22,000 euros, in retrospect almost a bargain. He was the most experienced of the runners here, having run six times as a two-year-old  and was placed several times in good company. He was always prominent here, took the lead one and a half furlongs out and galloped on strongly to the line. Trainer Markus Klug nominated the Bavarian Classic at Munich on May 1^st as his next intended target. Accon is out of a Dubawi mare from a good Ittlingen family and is closely related to Group Two Union-Rennen winner and Grand Prix de Paris runner-up Axxos (Monsun) and the Derby trip will clearly be no problem.

This also applies to the placed horses here. Runner-up , Darius Racing´s Radmaan is Irish-bred but her dam Rock of Ridd (Antonius Pius) was a smart performer in Norway, where she won the local 1,000 Guineas and was runner-up in the Oaks. Radmaan made most of the running at Cologne and this was a very encouraging performance; he is trained by Henk Grewe and the Italian Derby could be a possible target here. Possibly even more encouraging was the performance of the Schlenderhan homebred  Surely Motivated (Motivator) in third place. He only ran once last year, when runner-up to a colt that is currently one of the joint favourites for the Derby, and looks a certain improver over a longer distance. He is a member of the Schwarzgold family, arguably the best in the German Stud Book, and is a half-brother to two smart performers by Monsun, group-placed Steuben and Group Two winner Selkis, who is currently the dam of a leading classic hope in Japan. Trainer Jean-Pierre Carvalho stated in his stable review that Surely Motivated is being trained with the Deutsches Derby in mind, and this race will certainly have kept those hopes alive. We should also make a note of fourth-placed Turftiger (Maxios), a Gestüt Auenquelle-homebred who made some good late progress and is another one who will be suited by longer distances. He is a half-brother to Preis der Diana winner Turfdonna (Doyen) and his unraced dam was an own sister to Turfrose (Big Shuffle), winner of the (then) Group One Premio Lydia Tesio from the immediate family of champion Turfkönig.

The other interesting race at Cologne was the listed Grand Prix Aufgalopp, which was won by Gestüt Niederrhein´s homebred Nacida (Wiener Walzer), who finished fast and late to win by half a length and the same from the favourites Devastar (Areion) and Be My Sheriff (Lawman). The only filly in the field, she started at 15-1, but in reality she was certainly in with a good chance at the weights. Trained by Yasmin Almenräder, she is a half-sister to group-placed Nacar (Tertullian) while her dam Nacella (Banyumanik) was listed-placed; as a result of this victory, Nacida´s official rating has been raised to GAG 90 (i.e. international 100), which certainly does no harm to her prospects as a broodmare-

That was the first black type race of the 2019 German season, and the second follows this Sunday at Hoppegarten. The Preis des Gestüt Röttgen is a listed race over a mile for four-year-old and older fillies and mares and has attracted eleven runners. The most interesting is Fountain of Time (Iffraaj), a Godolphin filly trained in France by Henri-Alex Pantall. Godolphin is riding high at the moment and can notch up another victory here; she is likely to start favourite in view of Pantall´s excellent record in German listed races. The German fillies are quite evenly matched; possibly the best  of them are Cabarita (Areion) and Serena (Soldier Hollow), both trained by veteran Hans-Jürgen Gröschel, who is on the lookout for a new star following the retirement of Iquitos (Adlerflug). That seven-year-old, who was last Sunday announced as German Horse of the Year for the second time, is now enjoying a second career as a stallion at Gestüt Ammerland and had his first mare scanned in foal last week. Also on the Hoppegarten card are two races for three-year-olds, one for unraced fillies over 1800 metres and the other a maiden race over a mile. Both have a strong entry, with several runners from the top stables with classic entries, and we shall look at those results next week.

David Conolly-Smith