The English page - More German-bred winners

It has been another good week for German bloodstock and particularly for N.H. sires with a German background. We have already mentioned this often enough, but now hardly a day goes by without another winner in the U.K., Ireland or France by Getaway, Shirocco, Network & co (all sons of Monsun!). The latest tables published by the Thoroughbred Stallion Guide show that the current list of leading N.H. sires in GB/Ire (by number of winners) has Fame and Glory (Montjeu), Yeats (Sadler´s Wells), Getaway and Shirocco in the first four places, and the first-named has a clear connection to Germany, being a grandson of German 1,000 Guineas winner Grimpola (Windwurf). These results have made a clear impact on the market; at least week´s Tattersalls Cheltenham sale the two top lots were by Getaway and Shirocco at 210,000 and 175,000 guineas respectively, very high prices for 5yo NH performers, especially considering their four figure fees.

An even more spectacular price was the 570,000 guineas paid by Cheveley Park for Classic Getaway (guess which sire!) at Goffs just over a year ago; he had been sold as a yearling, also at Goffs, for 24,000 guineas. He fetched this high price after easily winning his point-to-point and is now with Willie Mullins, for whom he won a bumper last May; after a break he then had his first two races over hurdles last month, and after finishing second on his debut ran out a ready winner at Punchestown on Monday. He will now be part of the strong Mullins team for Cheltenham in March, where he has three entries. The trainer commented after the race “he has plenty of improvement in him”, while son Patrick, assistant trainer and jockey, said earlier: “he was more expensive than a Rolls-Royce but I´m sure Mrs. Thompson (owner) will get more fun out of him than a Rolls-Royce!”

Getaway, who was bred by Baron Ullmann, now stands at the Grange Stud, Co. Cork, part of the Coolmore Group, for 9,000 euros, quite a high fee for a N.H. stallion, but as we can see from the above, still potentially a bargain. He has covered some huge books, but still regularly delivers the goods. He also had two winners at Sedgefield this week, at a lower level admittedly, but they all count. The Grange Stud also stands another son of Monsun in Vadamos, who had a group race winner on the flat last week in New Zealand, as well as Fame and Glory and another leading N.H. sire in Walk in the Park (Montjeu).

Coolmore have certainly cottoned on to the potential of German breeding in N.H. racing, and so has another leading Irish stallion station, the Cashman family´s Rathbarry and Glenview Studs, who stand (among others) Shirocco, Malinas (Lomitas) and Sholokhov (Sadler´s Wells). Sholokhov is of course not German-bred, but he started his stallion career at Gestüt Etzean, where he sired Cheltenham Gold Cup winner Don Cossack; he currently has two likely Cheltenham winners in Shishkin and Bob Olinger. Malinas (Lomitas) was runner-up to Shirocco in the 2004 German Derby and is also doing very well as a N.H. sire, including winners this week at Plumpton and Fontwell; he is from the same family as Monsun.

Shirocco has also had several winners this week -  at Plumpton and Punchestown on Monday, Ffos Las on Tuesday and Leicester on Wednesday. He is best known for the Champion Hurdler Annie Power, while on the flat he sired the German Derby winner Windstoss, now himself a sire at Röttgen. It was Röttgen who bred Germany´s first Arc winner Star Appeal (Appiana II) and his close relation Strong Gale (Lord Gayle) was later sold to Rathbarry´s Liam Cashman and it was his huge success as a N.H. stallion in the 1980s and 1990s that first opened the eyes of Irish breeders to the potential of German-bred sires in this sector.

In addition to Vadamos at Grange Stud, Coolmore also stand Maxios at Castlehyde, and thus have two previously French-trained Group One winning milers by Monsun in their roster. We still clrearly remember Vadamos winning the Oettingen-Rennen at Baden-Baden in 2015 and trainer André Fabre´s highly complimentary comments; Maxios never ran in Germany but began his stallion career at Gestüt Fährhof and during his period there sired the Group One Preis der Diana winner Diamanta. However it now seems likely that both of these two relatively young (by the standards of N.H. sires) stallions have a bright future now in N.H. racing. Their offspring are already fetching very high prices. Maxios, who had a good winner this week at Ffos Las, is sire of the Fährhof-bred Quilixios, winner of last year´s Triumph Hurdle at Cheltenham.

With racing in Germany currently of no interest except to those directly involved, eyes this weekend will be fixed on the Dublin Racing Festival, two days of top class facing at Leopardstown with eight Grade One races and several other valuable events. Star of the show will probably be the unbeaten Honeysuckle (Sulamani), going for her 14^th successive victory; she will be at odds-on for Sunday´s Irish Champion Hurdle, which she has won for the last two years. It will be a brave person who bets against her landing the hat-trick. She also has a German background, as she is out of the German-bred First Royal (Lando). It is also probably odds-on that more winners at the meeting will also be by German-bred sires. In that case, we shall discuss them in more detail next week.

David Conolly-Smith