TurfTimes:
Ausgabe 635 vom Freitag, 11.09.2020
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.
Saturday´s main race, the Group Three Preis der Sparkassen Finanzgruppe, ended with the mlost exciting finishing of the week so far, with almost all runners still holding a winning chance at the distance and in the end only just over a length separating the first six home. In the end it was Stall Salzburg´s 7yo Wai Key Star (Soldier Hollow), who scored by a short head after a brilliant ride by Germany´s best lady jockey Sibylle Vogt, from the 8yo Itobo (Areion) – both of them course specialists. 9yo Potemkin (New Approach) was not far away in fourth after spreading a plate at the state, so it was clearly a race for the oldtimers. Most of the main contestants are likely to meet again in the Preis der Deutschen Einheit at Hoppegarten on October 3rd, a fixture which also includes the Group One Grosser Preis von Berlin, held over from August. Trainer Sarah Steinberg, who has an excellent record at Baden-Baden, commented: “I am really proud of the old boy who runs his best races for Sibylle; he is a dominating character and does not go so well with male jockeys in the saddle.”
There were no foreign-trainer runners here, but there were two in the following day´s Group Three (in previous years Group Two) Goldene Peitsche, and punters made British challenger Sunday Star (Kodiac) favourite. This was probably more due to the excellent record of U.K. sprinters in the race (trainer Ed Walker and jockey Gerald Mossé had won it in 2019) than to the filly´s own form, which was certainly weaker than most of the previous English winners here. In the end she ran well enough in fourth place, but had no answer to the finishing speed of Namos, who cemented his position as Germany´s top sprinter with a very convincing victory here. He has already twice won the Silberne Peitsche, so it was certainly great for his owner, Berlin civil servant Petra Stucke, to win the golden version this time. She had bought Namos privately for a reported 30,000 euros, from breeder Gestüt Brümmerhof on the occasion of that stud´s open day in the spring of 2018. Namos, who has also run very respectably in two top British races year, stays seven furlongs well enough and could go next for the Prix de la Foret. He is clearly the best German sprinter for several years and his rating has been put up to GAG 95 (=international 110).
This weekend´s cards are stronger, at least as far as the main events are concerned, with a Group Two on both Friday and Saturday and the Group One Grosser Preis von Baden, the highlight of the whole week, on Sunday. Friday´s top race is the Oettingen-Rennen over a mile, now with a new sponsor Kronimus. German-bred milers are traditionally not as smart as our middle distance performers and this race has been won by fofreign-trained runners ten times this century, mainly by British raiders. The two foreign raiders this time are both owned by Godolphin, but the 4yo Dark Vision (Dream Ahead) is trained in Yorkshire by Mark Johnston and the 3yo filly Half Light (Shamardal) in SW France by Henri-Alex Pantall, both trainers with a long record of success in German black type events. It is quite conceivable that they could finish one-two, with definite preference for Half Light, who followed up her Group Three Hamburg victory with an excellent second place in the Group One Prix Rothschild at Deauville, the best piece of form in this field. However the German defence is strong, headed by recent Deauiville Group Three winner Thorin (Soldier Hollow), Horse of the Year Rubaiyat (Areion), runner-up this year in both the German and the Italian 2,000 Guineas, and No Limit Credit (Night of Thunder), runner-up in the German 1,000. Sarah Steinberg´s Runnymede (Dansili) looks best of the others.
Saturday´s top race is the T. von Zastrow Stutenpreis for fillies and mares over 2400 metres and Mark Johnston´s Rose of Kildare (Make Believe), now running in the colours of Qatar Racing, is expectzed to start favourite. She was thifrd ion the German 1,000 Guineas after not getting a clear run, but ran much better when winning York´s Musidora Stakes and was hen outclassed, but not disgraced, when last to Ghaiyyath in the International Stakes at the same track. She has never yet raced over this distance, but nor have most of the locals, four of whom ran in the German Oaks. Steinberg´s Zamrud (Samum) just pipped Virginia Joy (Soldier Hollow) for second place there behind easy winnerMiss Yoda (Sea the Stars), with Elle Memory (Maxios) not beaten far in sixth and Ocean Fantasy (Make Believe) seventh. The second U.K. runner Golden Lips (Goldern Horn), runner-up to Miss Yoda in the Lingfield Oaks Trial, and Sunny Queen (Camelot), who has only ever run twice, are also possibles here, but the three older runners do not look up to Group Two class. Interestingly, the race is worth the normal full amount for a German Group Two of 70,000 euros (40,000 to the winner) as it is financed by money left in his will by a wealthy local racegoer, while most otzher fraces at the meeting have had their prize-money halved, e.g. the Oettingen-Rennen, now worth only 20,000 euros to the winner.
Also on Saturday is the Group Three Zukunftsrennen for 2yo´s over 1400 metres, in former days Germany´s top race for this age group. This looks wide open, with seven of the nine runners having won already and four of them still unbeaten, including the colt Timotheus (Amaron) and the filly Shila (Lord of England), who have both run and won twice. Timotheus has the highest rating, but that probably means little at this stage, and almost all the runners are from top stables.
Sunday´s top race is of course the Group One Grosser Preis von Baden, now worth 110,000 euros to the winner (150,000 last year). This has attracted a decent field of eight runners, including Godolphin´s 6yo Barney Roy (Excelebration) and Mark Johnston´s 5yo Communique (Casamento) from the U.K., both of them well known to German racegoers. Communique ran here three times, his best performance coming when runner-up to French King in the Grosser Preis von Berlin; however his other two runs were disappointing, as has been most of his form this season, and Barney Roy can easily be preferred. He won Munich´s Grosser Dallmayr-Preis this year, and then finished fourth in the Preis von Europa, in both races meeting some of Sunday´s opponents. The problem for him is clearly the distance; all his best form has been from a mile to ten furlongs, and at Munich he had to work hard to score over the latter trip, while at Cologne he gave the strong impression that 2400 metres is too far.
The fast ground (Baden-Baden is currently enjoying a lengthy Indian summer) will be in his favour, but on the whole we expect a German-trained winner. Steinberg´s Quest the Moon won the big race at the May meeting here, but was arguably slightly fortunate to defeat the 4yo filly Durance (Champs Elysees); these two 4yo´s are old rivals and have met three times this year already, with little between them. Another 4yo filly with a chance is Donjah (Teofilo), runner-up last year to the “monster” Ghaiyyath (Dubawi) and who came back to form last time when winning the Preis von Europa. However trainer Henk Grewe is convinced that she needs soft going to show her best form, and that seems highly unlikely. The two three-year-olds in the field add spice to the race; both ran well in German Derby, with Torquator Tasso (Adlerflug) coming with an eyecatching run to finish second, while Kaspar was a close fourth (later promoted to third).Since then Kaspar has run another strong race when a neck runner-up to Donjah in the Preis von Europa, while Torquator Tasso has not run since but is the subject of glowing reports and likely to start favourite.
The jury is still out on the quality of this year´s German Derby, but obviously one would like to see Torquator Tasso and Kaspar run well; the former has an excellent reputation, while the latter has improved from race to race and could well improve further. The winner of the Hamburg classic In Swoop (Adlerflug), also runs on Sunday; now trained in France he runs in the Grand Prix de Paris, where he will face among others Epsom Derby winner Serpentine (Galileo). Also declared for Sunday are Notre Ruler (Ruler of the World) and DiCaprio (Adlerflug), respectively fourth and sixth in the Derby and both entered in the BBAG sales race over 2400 metres in Baden-Baden with DiCaprio clearly favoured by these weights – while two of the also-rans are due to run in the Austrian Derby. As a result we can expect to know much more by Sunday evening.
David Conolly-Smith
