The English page: Racing over the long Easter weekend

It´s a long time in racing terms between the end of March and the Deutsches Derby, to be run at Hamburg on July 10th, and the Preis der Diana (Oaks) at Düsseldorf four weeks later. It is also very unusual for serious candidates for those classics to be racing in March, but this is what happened over the long Easter weekend, when we saw promising entries for both events in action at Bremen on Good Friday, Düsseldorf on the Saturday, Hoppegarten on Sunday and Cologne on Monday. These are also the only two races in the German calendar for which there is a proper ante-post betting market, and amazingly the top three (according to some lists) in the betting for both these races were all out at the weekend.
Capricorn Stud´s homebred (in Ireland) Berghain set the ball rolling with a very easy win over eleven furlongs at Bremen. The Medicean colt kept to the inside while the rest of the field swung wide to the stands rail; this may have saved him some ground, but he won going away by six lengths and was value for more. He is a half-brother to Cesarewitch winner Big Easy, and stamina is clearly no issue here. As always with these early season maidens, there is a question of how strong the opposition might have been, but it is worth remembering that his trainer Jens Hirschberger won this race in his days as private trainer for Schlenderhan with Adlerfliug (2007) and Wiener Walzer (2009),and both of them went on to win the German Derby.
The following day, Dschinghis Secret (Soldier Hollow) was an equally easy winner over the same trip at Düsseldorf. He was one of the top lots at the BBAG yearling sale in 2014, costing Hong Kong-based businessman Horst Pudwill 200,000 euros. He is from an excellent family and here again stamina seems assured. His trainer Markus Klug was also responsible for the 2014 Deutsches Derby Sea the Moon, the best German Derby winner of recent years.
A live Derby candidate from a smaller stable was seen the following day in Berlin, when Boscaccio (Mount Nelson) ran away with a nine furlongs race. He is trained in Hanover by Christian Sprengel and runs in the colours of Rainer Hupe + friends. Unbeaten after two starts, he is now the general early favourite for the Derby, although in his case stamina still has to be proved; Mount Nelson is now known for stayers, while the dam was also best at a mile. However this is the family (if one digs deep enough) of Treve, Trillion and Triptych, which is certainly encouraging.
At Cologne Rennstall Gestüt Hachtsee´s homebred Zirconic Star made all the running over the extended nine furlongs and pulled out extra in the final furlong to repel the strong challenge of local hope Weltmeister (Areion). Both of these are also Hamburg-bound, but Zirconic Star certainly appeals as the stronger stayer, as his second dam won the Prix du Cadran. Trainer Yasmin Almenräder is a trainer to watch; she sent out a couple of group race winners last year, in her first proper full season, and has three colts, including this one, entered for the Deutsches Derby.
Cologne´s Union-Rennen (June 19th) is usually the top trial for the German Derby and closed this week with 39 entries, including all five colts mentioned above. Indeed, all five trainers mentioned the race as a target before the Derby itself ; plans can of course change and there are alternative events to consider, but there seems no doubt that we have seen credible Derby candidates in action at a surprisingly early stage of the season.
The Preis der Diana is further away, but trainer Andreas Wöhler, who has won the last two editions, seems to have an extremely strong hand here: five of the top six in the betting are in his Ravensberg stable. He introduced two of them at the weekend, both of whom won in convincing style; Night Music (Sea The Stars) in Hoppegarten and French-bred Double Dream (Lawman) at Cologne. The latter was one of the better two-year-old fillies last season, finishing fourth in the Preis der Winterkönigin, following which she was sold out of Markus Klug´s stable to Australian Bloodstock, for whom Wöhler has done extremely well. Her fourth dam is triple Oaks winner Fair Salinia, while she is also closely related to Prix du Jockey Club winner and stallion Reliable Man.
Night Music has possibly the best pedigree of all, as she is a half-sister by Sea The Stars to the top class Night Magic (Sholokhov), who won the Preis der Diana for the same owner (Stall Salzburg) in 2009, and the Grosser Preis von Baden the following year, when she was also Germany´ s Horse of the Year. The 2015 winner of that title was announced during racing at Cologne on Monday. It is Stall Nizza´s filly Nightflower (Dylan Thomas), homebred in Ireland and trained on the course by Peter Schiergen. She won the Preis von Europa last season and was also runner-up in the Preis der Diana and Grosser Preis von Baden. She received 52% of the votes cast by members of the public from a short list of three drawn up by racing journalists.

David Conolly-Smith