Breeding & Racing in Germany

With racing in Germany still limited to extremely poor racing on the Dortmund sand track on the next two Sundays, it is still the N.H. scene in the U.K. and Ireland which grabs the interest. However not so much the racing itself, which is also at a relatively low level until the all-important Cheltenham meeting starts the week after next, but  the scandal concerning top Irish trainer Gordon Elliott, which is dealt with elsewhere in this issue.

We have already written twice this year about Monsun´s excellent N.H. record and this story is still ongoing. There are winners almost every day sired by his sons or out of his daughters. Particularly successful this week have been Shirocco, one of Monsun´s best sons who defeated Malinas (Lomitas) to win the 2004 German Derby and went on to win the Breeders´ Cup Turf for Baron Ullmann and trainer André Fabre, and Sea The Moon (Sea The Stars), whose dam Sanwa was not only a daughter of Monsun but also a full sister to Samum and Schiaparelli, who are also previous winners of the German Derby which Sea The Moon himself won in 2014. The above-mentioned Malinas, closely related to Monsun, is also having a great run as a sire of N.H.

With next to no racing in Germany at present - only a very low level meeting on Dortmund´s sand track every second Sunday, with most races worth 2,000 euros or less to the winner – it is an opportune moment to look beyond the border and discover what German-breds are up to in other countries. And of course the N.H. scene in Britain and Ireland has to be the first port of call.

Racing continues at a very low level in Germany: only on Sunday and only on the sand track at Dortmund. Last Sunday´s meeting featured six races, five of them handicaps at the lowest possible level and one handicap at the second-lowest level. The German racing newspaper Sport-Welt described it as a day which “offered everything the heart desires.” Speaking personally, this writer´s heart desires to see horses running that are also capable of winning decent races. However this Sunday´s card is more or less the same, as is the case the Sunday following, while in February only two days are scheduled, both at Dortmund and with most races worth 2,000 euros or less to the winner. Obviously this is a very quiet time of year, but even so this is rather depressing and the current Covis-19 lockdown only makes it feel even worse.

This time last year the term coronavirus would have meant nothing to the vast majority of the world´s population. Little more than two months later, the World Health Organisation (WHO) had declared a worldwide pandemic; it turned out to be the most serious one since the Spanish flu epidemic which followed World War One, and it is still with us today. From mid-March onwards public life – museums, libraries, concerts, cinemas and other cultural events, shops, restaurants – was practically closed down all over the world. Sports were badly affected, including horse racing. The nature of the pandemic meant that all crowds had to be avoided, and most sporting events took place, if at all, behind closed doors.