The English page - More of Monsun

With very little happening at the moment in German racing – the foaling season is now in full swing and the covering season is also starting, but racing is limited to low class Sunday meetings on the sand track at Dortmund– it is time perhaps to continue last week´s theme of the success of German stallions in N.H. racing, and particular those by Monsun. Even as these lines are being written, a daughter of Getaway has won quite a decent race over hurdles in Fontainebleau, while half an hour earlier in the equivalent race for colts Gestüt Karlshof´s homebred Zuckerberg was just touched off after leading most of the way. Zuckerberg is by German Derby winner Kamsin, himself a son of another German Derby winner in Samum, who was Monsun´s first Group One winner way back in the year 2020.

These races obviously took place in France, but Getaway´s main sphere of activity is the N.H. scene in Ireland and the U.K., where he currently leads the statistics for N.H. stallions this season by number of winners. These winners have often come in novice hurdles but there have also been a good number of big race winners, such as Thosedaysaregone, who won the valuable Ladbrokes Hurdle at the Dublin Racing Festival last week. In fact several sons and daughters of Getaway are prominent in the early betting for next month´s Cheltenham Festival.

The huge Irish breeding giant Coolmore, who own several stud farms, have quite a significant group of N. H. stallions – although the main emphasis is of course on the flat, where they stand champion Galileo and other international stars- and they have no fewer than three sons of Monsun available to breeders, the above-mentioned Getaway, who stands at Grange Stud at a fee of 9,000 euros, as well as Ocovango, at the Beeches Stud (4,500 euros), and newly-arrived Maxios at Castlehyde (6,000 euros). Maxios, who started his stud career at Fährhof, has already had several good winners over jumps, while Ocovango is sire of smart Langer Dan among others. 

These Monsun stallions do not by any means all stand in Ireland. Network, bred by Wittekindshof, stood for his entire career in France, although arguably his best winners were champion Sprinter Sacre, trained in Lambourn by Nicky Henderson, and currently Delta Work, trained in Ireland by Gordon Elliott and a leading fancy for the Cheltenham Gold Cup. Network died last year and Samum in 2018, but the latter´s own brother Schiaparelli, who also won the German Derby, is still alive and kicking and stands at Overbury Stud in England; his daughter Indefatigable won a listed race over hurdles at Warwick last week.

And of course plenty of Monsun´s sons have made their mark as sires of top class performers on the flat, one of the latest being Vadamos, who shuttles between Tally Ho Stud in Ireland an Rich Hill Stud in New Zealand  and by all accounts is very highly regarded. The influence of German bloodstock down under continues and this week we had Guizot (Tertullian), bred by Baron Ullmann and closely related to Getaway, third in the Carlyon Cup at Caulfield. An “exotic” winner of interest this week is Taamol (Helmet), who took H.H. The President´s Cup at Abu Dhabi, good news for Fährhof, who now stand Helmet, the Australian-bred 12-year-old. Helmet, a direct descendant of Röttgen´s famous mare Anna Paola, was a Group One winner at two and three in Australia for Godolphin and began his European stud career at Dalham Hall; he has already hit the jackpot with his son Thunder Snow, winner of the last two editions of the Dubai World Cup and thus one of the biggest winners in racing history. He is clearly an enrichment of the German scene and one must hope that he gets better support.

Monsun´s mares have also made a huge impact and he has been a top international broodmare sire for several years now. One of his best daughters was Stacelita, from the celebrated Schlenderhan Schwarzgold family, who won the Prix de Diane before being sold to the USA where she won the Beverley D and other top races. She was then sold on to the Japanese Yoshida family and is dam of Soul Stirring (Frankel), winner of the Japanese Oaks and other top races; Stacelita appears to have another talented 3yo filly now, Spangled Star (Deep Impact), a recent winner at Kyoto.

Another outstanding son of a Monsun mare is Sea The Moon, the German Derby winner of 2014 and who has made a great start to his stallion career at Lanwades Stud in Newmarket, not only as a sire of smart performers on the flat (Noble Moon, Quest for Moon et al), but also over jumps; his son Allmankind is unbeaten over hurdles and is one of the favourites for next month´s Triumph Hurdle. Sea The Moon´s dam Sanwa is an own sister to Samum and Schiaparelli.

German stallions continue to exert influence all over the globe. Arguably the most successful of all at the moment is Silvano, who stands at the Jacobs family´s Maine Chance Farm in South Africa. Bred and raced by Gestüt Fährhof, he is by Lomitas out of a U.S mare and has (exceptionally!) no Monsun in his pedigree. He has been an outstanding success in South Africa and seems almost certain to be champion sire there again this year, for the fifth time. The original plan was to shuttle him between Maine Chance and Fährhof, but the later outbreak of African Horse Sickness and the consequent travel restrictions made this impossible. He has been in South Africa since 2003 and has only managed to make it back to Europe once, for the 2009 covering season; among his foals born following year was Lucky Speed (out of a Monsun mare!) who went on the win the Deutsches Derby in 2013.

David Conolly-Smith