The English page - Wonderful Moon a wonderful winner to end group race season

The season is coming to an end, and last Sunday´s Group Three Grosser Preis von Bamberg – Herzog von Ratibor-Rennen was the last group race of the German season and in the meantime the last European group races have also been run. The Ratibor-Rennen, as it is usually known, is an important late season race for two-year-olds and has often been won by top juveniles who went on to major success the following season, such as subsequent German Derby winner Pastorius (Soldier Hollow) in 2011. Pastorius, now standing as a stallion in France, had a runner in last Sunday´s race, the filly Nona, but she dropped out after leading to halfway.

The very easy winner was Stall Wasserfreunde´s Wonderful Moon (Sea The Moon), trained by Henk Grewe, who led coming into the straight and soon went clear to score by a long-looking 12 lengths. Wonderful Moon was bred by Gestüt Görlsdorf and was a 55,000 euros yearling at last year´s BBAG September Sale and as the name suggests, is by the Görlsdorf-bred stallion Sea The Moon (Sea The Stars), who stands at Lanwades Stud near Newmarket, and won the German Derby two years after Pastorius. He is undoubtedly one of the best postwar winners of the Hamburg classic and has made a really strong start to his stallion career; he is currently the fourth most successful second crop stallion in Europe (by winnings).

Wonderful Moon is the third foal, and third winner, out of Wonderful Filly (Lomitas), herself a half-sister to Group Three winner Wunder (Adlerflug), an unlucky fifth in the Preis der Diana, and their dam Wonderful World (Dashing Blade) won three races and was a half-sister to four more winners, three of them at black type level. The next dam Wonderful Lady (Surumu) was third in the German 1,000 Guineas and while many of the recent runners from this family have been milers, there seems no reason to doubt that Wonderful Moon will stay middle distances next year. He is currently quoted as 9-1 joint favourite for the 2020 Deutsches Derby and also third favourite for the German 2,000 Guineas, behind Schlenderhan´s homebred Alson and Darius Racing´s Rubaiyat, both of whom are by Areion.

In Wonderful Moon, Alson and Rubaiyat Germany has had three juveniles this season who look well above average. Wonderful Moon finished runner-up to Rubaiyat in the Preis des Winterfavoriten, but was clearly unlucky there after losing several lengths at the start, and the form was in any case boosted when Rubaiyat went on to an easy Group Two victory in Italy. The European handicappers are meeting this weekend to discuss the handicap ratings of the leading 2yo´s and these three will certainly rate highly. Alson is a Group One winner (albeit in a match when his opponent was well below his best), but his performance when runner-up in the Group One Prix Jean-Lúc Lagardere was arguably the best by a German 2yo this year. Schlenderhan announced recently that they are closing their private training centre at Bergheim at the end of the year and that Alson is to be trained in France next season, so it is not at all sure that he will be running here.

It is difficult to assess where Wonderful Moon now stands, as he certainly had the run of the race at Krefeld, sticking to the favoured inside rail throughout, and some of his opponents ran below form, but even so, he looked very impressive. He is not the easiest 2yo winner in Germany this year – that was Emoji (Soldier Hollow), who won a maiden by 14 lengths at Baden-Baden last month; she was sold soon afterwards and will also be trained in France next year, but Wonderful Moon´s owners say that their winner is not for sale, despite several lucrative offers. That is good news, especially with Alson also now in France.

There is no German racing this weekend and we now have only two more meetings on turf this year- next Wednesday, a holiday in certain parts of Germany, at Dresden, including a listed race, and then at Mülheim on Boxing Day. This latter fixture has been revived; it was always very popular in earlier days and we must hope that the weather plays along. There are also five fixtures on the sand tracks at Dortmund and Neuss in December, mainly offering only modest fare and all with an early morning start.

If the 2yo handicaps are published in time, we shall look at them in more detail next week, and also analyse the results of this season´s group races in Germany. As almost all the top races went abroad, this will probably make grim reading for fans of the German racing and breeding industry. More grim news, published this week, is that only just over 700 live foals were registered in Germany in 2019, an alarmingly low figure; this compares to over 1,300 at the turn of the century. Better news is that Best Solution (Kodiac), winner last year of the Grosser Preis von Berlin and Grosser Preis von Baden in Godolphin colours, is to stand in Germany next year, to be precise at Auenquelle at a fee of 6,500 euros. More about this in our review of German stallions here in December. 

David Conolly-Smith