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.
Last weekend´s Dublin Racing Festival at Leopardstown must be regarded as a major success. Big and enthusiastic crowds, especially when one considers the circumstances, and excellent racing with top class winners, many of whom will be expected to go on to further success in Cheltenham next month. Big winner of the weekend was Ireland´s top N.H. trainer Willie Mullins, who won six of the eight Grade One races. But he missed out on the two most important races of all, Saturday´s Irish Gold Cup and Sunday´s Irish Champion Hurdle, won by Gordon Elliott´s Conflated and Henry de Bromhead´s Honeysuckle (Sulamani) respectively, both of whom have German elements in their pedigrees.
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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).
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The last few days have seen more numerous successes in N.H. races for runners by German-bred sires (or in some cases, sires that began their stallion career in Germany). At Lingfield´s big meeting last Sunday the Etzean-bred War Lord (Jukebox Jury) was an easy winner, while Pinkerton (Ocovango) and Ballyshannon Rose (Doyen) were both successful at Thurles (Ireland) and Fantastic Lady (Network), Theatre Glory (Fame and Glory) and Barrichello (Gentlewave) all scored at Warwick. Also at the weekend German-bred Zanini (Poseidon Adventure) won the big hurdle race at Pisa (Italy). There were more Irish successes on Tuesday at Down Royal, when Deploy the Getaway (Getaway), Rodaniche (Arcadio) and By The Same Token I (Fame and Glory) all won.
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Last week we looked at the influence of German bloodstock in the French N.H. scene, which continues to be quite significant. In the list of French N.H. sires published regularly by the Thoroughbred Stallion Guide we find that five sons of Monsun figure in the top 50 (by number of winners): Network, Bathyron, Masterstroke, Manduro and Noroit; in addition Masked Marvel (Montjeu) is in 14th place, and Nicaron (Acatenango) and Anzillero (Law Society) also figure, all with strong German elements in their pedigrees. If we look at the figures for the U.K. and Ireland, then the picture is even more striking. That list (by number of winners) is headed by Fame and Glory (Montjeu) and Getaway and Shirocco, both sons of Monsun, in third and fourth place.
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Racing taking place in Germany at present is only staged at the winter sand track at Dortmund, where there were 7 races last Sunday, the first fixture of 2022, with seven more scheduled for this Sunday; they also have racing there on the Sunday of next week, followed by two more in February and another two in March. The first meeting on turf takes place at Mülheim in late February, who also stage a meeting at the end of March.
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This is the last English page for 2021, so it seems an opportune time to look back at the events of the 2021 season in Germany, the second year of the covid-19 pandemic, which currently remains as potent as ever and shows no sign of abating in the near future. Obviously this was the overriding feature of the year, and its effect on horse racing (and most other sports as well) was extremely negative. There was a period in the summer when things appeared to be getting back to normal, but the “fourth wave” in the autumn soon put an end to optimism. Crowds were limited throughout the year, and clearly this was a major problem for racecourses, whose income from racegoers, betting, catering and other sources suffered heavily.
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There was racing at Mülheim last Saturday on very heavy ground and the card included the last valuable (relatively speaking) race of the season, a BBAG sales race for 3yo´s over 2000 metres. There was a big field with 15 runners and, as so often in such races, some quite considerable weight differences, with the three contestants on top weight (which depended on prize-money won) giving away up to 7 kilos. Surprisingly, one of them won, Atze (Amaron), trained in Hoppegarten by Roland Dzubasz, who was always well placed, improved his position on the turn into the straight where he soon led and he kept on well under Sibylle Vogt to score by half a length from American Fly (Maxios), who was in receipt of five kilos, with the filly Miss Marbel (Adlerflug), getting six kilos, 2½ lengths further back in third. The field was well strung out, with the two other top weights well back.
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With only a few races to come in 2021, the season´s statistics are already more or less set in stone, and it is clear that Adlerflug (In The Wings) will be champion sire for the second successive year. These statistics refer only to domestic results, and if foreign races were included Adlerflug´s dominant position would be much clearer following the victory of his son Torquator Tasso in Europe´s richest race, the Prix de l´Arc de Triomphe, worth over 2.8 million euros to the winner. That sum is almost four times as much as Adlerflug´s winnings in Germany from 37 races won - in fact it is worth more than the combined winnings of the top six stallions in the German list, a sad reflection on the current poor level of prize-money in Germany.
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The only racing last week in Germany was a low level meeting in Munich, but although there were no black type races there were two races for 2yo maidens, which were both won in good style by a horse making all the running and in both cases looking like an interesting prospect for next season.
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Sieger am 31. Oktober in Rathcannon/Irland, Point-to-Point-Rennen, 4800m
BBAG-Herbstauktion 2017, €12.000 an Richard Venn BS
Nicklaus (2015), W., v. Exceed and Excel – Nianga, Zü.: Stiftung Gestüt Fährhof
Sieger am 10. November in Al Janadriah/Saudi-Arabien, 1400m, ca. €3.200
BBAG-Jährlingsauktion 2016, €180.000 an Peter & Ross Doyle BS/Mayfair Speculators
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Last Sunday's Group Three Grosser Preis der Wohnstätte Krefeld – Herzog von Ratibor-Rennen over 1700 metres for 2yo's was the last European group race of the season and also of course the last German juvenile race of importance. Germany has four group races for this age group and the Ratibor-Rennen (as it is usually known) although it comes very late in the season has often enough been won by juveniles that went on to greater success the following season.
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Last Sunday´s Allianz- Grosser Preis von Bayern in Munich was the final Group One race of the European season and ended with the expected victory of Kirsten Rausing´s homebred Alpinista (Frankel) who thus completed the same German Group One hat trick as her grandam Albanova in 2004, following the Grosser Preis von Berlin in August and the Preis von Europa in September. The Grosser Preis von Berlin, now back at its historic home in Hoppegarten, was in Albanova´s day run as the Deutschland-Preis in Düsseldorf, while the Munich race, which goes back after several changes in name, to the old Aral-Pokal, was in 2004 run as the Rheinland-Pokal in Cologne, but the character of all three races has remained the same, as well as the distance of 2400 metres.
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