Breeding & Racing in Germany
David Conolly-Smith: www.galoppfoto.de - Frank SorgeIn order to be of assistance to our growing number of readers from abroad, we are with immediate effect publishing in every issue of Turf Times an English page, giving in compact form all the latest racing and breeding news from Germany in English. It will be written by the well-known racing journalist David Conolly-Smith, who has lived in Germany for many years. He is the German representative of the International Racing Bureau and writes regularly on German racing and breeding for the Racing Post, Irish Field, EBN, TRC and many other publications.
This is a very quiet time of year for German racing. We have just two days´ racing in Germany in January, both on Dortmund´s sand track, and another two more at Dortmund in February. There is then racing on three successive Sundays in March, followed by the first turf fixture, at Düsseldorf on March 28th. There is therefore no racing at all on most of the weeks in the immediate future. This is to a certain extent a reflection of the fact that the industry has shrunk quite alarmingly this century; there are now only about 2,000 horses in training, compared to well over 3,000 just 20 years ago. To a certain extent this is also due to the fact that the only other winter track, at Neuss and founded in 1875, closed down three years ago. This has also impacted on the breeding situation.
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There are only two more race days left in Germany this year, at Mülheim on turf (weather permitting) on Boxing Day and on New Year´s Eve on Dortmund´s sand track, and from then on Dortmund has a monopoly until the end of March. It is therefore an appropriate time to look back at the events of 2022, a difficult year in view of the continuing covid-19 pandemic and the Russian invasion of Ukraine, which caused massive problems, not only for the world of racing. However the German racing and breeding industries held up well, with crowds and betting turnover back to near 2019 levels, and it must be said that the level of German form, and in particular the top mile and a half races, has held up really well.
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There was racing on turf at Baden-Baden last Saturday, but from now on we are only going to have racing on the sand track at Dortmund for the next three months. The sole exception is the traditional Boxing Day fixture at Mülheim, but there must be a slight doubt about that as winter seems to have arrived and it has now turned very cold. Dortmund´s winter meeting begins this Sunday and there are in all ten days scheduled: New Year´s Eve, followed by two days in January, two more in February and four in March, almost all on Sunday with a very early start. This means that there are several weeks in January and February with no racing at all in Germany. This is mainly due to the fact that the other all-weather track, in Neuss, is now closed and extremely unlikely ever to reopen. Racing on turf resumes in April with the first group race on the 16th, the Kalkmann Frühjahrsmeile at Düsseldorf.
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Sadly the optimistic predictions that the European challengers, and in particular German hope Tünnes could come out on top in last weekend´s Japan Cup proved well wide of the mark. The French-trained runners finished fifth, sixth and thirteenth, while Tünnes was a disappointiung ninth in the field of 18. The 3yo from the Cologne stable of Peter Schiergen appeared rather agitated at the start, playing up for quite a while and then started very slowly. He was almost last as the field swung into the straight, where he was brought to the wide outside. There he had a clear run while those towards the inside were busy getting in each others´ way, but it hardly helped. He showed very little of the expected acceleration, but stayed on past beaten horses, finishing about 6 ½ lengths behind the winner.
weiterlesen »The season is almost at an end, and the last black type race of 2022 in Germany was run last Sunday in Munich, the Isfahan Grosser Münchener Herbstpreis, a listed race for 3yo´s and up over 2200 metres. This looked a very open affair on paper, with three foreign-trained runners, but punters were in no doubt: Gestüt Ravensberg´s homebred Wiesentau (Mukhadram) was backed down to 6-5 favouritism and won accordingly. He is trained by Andreas Wöhler on the traditional Ravensberg estate in Gütersloh, so it was a fitting result, especially as Wöhler´s other runner, Team Valor´s Lajoscha (Gleneagles) finished well to grab second place on the line. That was a decent performance but he was never going to be a danger to the winner, who led a long way out and won as he pleased. The winning margin of 3 lengths in no way reflects his superiority here.
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The official champion trainer in Germany is the one who wins the most races, not, as is the case in most other countries, the trainer who wins the most prize-money. In our opinion the German method is wrong; it is the trainer´s job to place his horses with such skill that they win money for their owner, and the more money, the better. Here a trainer who wins 50 low level handicaps is seen to be more successful than a trainer who wins a Group One race. The trainers themselves seem to want it this way, but we do not agree.
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Small fields have been a regular feature of top level racing in Europe this year. Quite a few of the best races have had five runner or less, e.g. the King George at Ascot and the Grosser Preis von Baden. This is not only bad news for the racecourse, but also makes the likelihood of a false-run race much more likely, as we saw at Baden-Baden. This can be avoided by the use of a pacemaker Aidan O´Brien is however one of the few trainers to adopt this tactic on a regular basis – or of course one can force the pace oneself. This does not always work out, but certainly worked well last Sunday at Munich, where there were only five runners in the Grosser Allianz-Preis von Bayern, the final Group One race of the 2022 season, and the hot favourite Tünnes (Guiliani) made all the running.
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Big race in Germany last weekend was the Group Three Silbernes Pferd (“silver horse”) over 3000 metres at Hoppegarten. This is not only one of Germany´s best staying races, but ois also the oldest race in the German calendar, dating back to 1832. It looked quite an open affair with 9 runners, only one of them a 3yo, the filly Pretty Girl (Sea The Stars), but she dropped out disappointingly sfter making the early running. Stall Nizza´s homebred Nerium (Camelot) started favoiurite, and he went on at halfway. He had a clear lead in the straight and looked the likely winner two out when he stilled by five langths. But then the 5yo mare Silence Please (Gleneagles), who had been held up in last place for the first mile, came out of the pack and went in pursuit.
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Last weekend we had a modest meeting at Dresden on Saturday, followed by a much stronger card on Sunday at Hanover, where the 11 races included four black type events. This was preceded by a day-long conference, the so-called “thoroughbred experts´ day”. Many of the leading personalities in German racing were present, and many issues were freely and openly discussed. Among them was the use ,or rather misuse, of the whip, and it seems quite likely that Germany´s strict laws in this regard will be further tightened.
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As expected, the 2yo races were the most interesting events at Baden-Baden´s Sales & Racing Festival last week. The meeting itself must be regarded as a major success, and they were lucky with the weather, which although miserable on Friday (the first day) was excellent on the Sunday, resulting in a good crowd and strong betting turnover. The new management team of Peter Gaul and Stephan Buchner must be congratulated on a great job. There is one more day´s racing to come at the Iffezheim track, on Saturday December 3rd, which will be combined with a Christmas market; this is a complete innovation and it must be hoped that it is also a success, although much obviously will depend on the weather.
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This is the time of year when the main interest in the racing world switches to the 2yo´s and, it is hoped, classic prospects for next year. The German calendar is always about a month behind other leading European nations and this applies even more to the juveniles than to the older horses. In France we have races for 2yo´s in the early spring, in England the Brocklesby Stakes at the Doncaster meeting in late March is the traditional start of the flat season in the U.K. The race has been run in its present form since 1875 (originally at Lincoln) and It has often been won by performers who went on to prove themselves among the best of their crop. This season the winner Persian Force (Mehmas) went on to be placed in top races at Royal Ascot, Newmarket and Deauville. We remember Hearts of Fire (Firebreak), the 2009 winner, who finished the season by winning the Group One (then) Gran Criterium at Milan, taking in Baden-Baden´s Zukunfts-Rennen on the way.
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What a weekend! From Last Friday to Monday there were group races n Saint-Cloud and Longchamp in France, in Ascot and Newmarket in England, in Tipperary in Ireland, and in Düsseldorf and Hoppegarten in Germany; in addition there were listed races in Dundalk (Ireland), Redcar , Toulouse, Milan, and Hanover and Mülheim and Övreroll in Norway,as well as on the undercard most of the group race meetings. There were also Group One races in Japan, the USA and Chile. It is clearly one of the busiest weekends of the year internationally, but equally clearly the number one place goes to the Arc weekend at ParisLongchamp, with three Group Two and no fewer than eight Group One races. It is interesting to note that six of these events went to the U.K., four winners were trained in France and one in Ireland.
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