The English page - Soldier Hollow new champion sire

Any doubts about the identity of this year´s champion sire in Germany were dispelled at last weekend´s Baden-Baden meeting when Soldier Hollow (In The Wings) sired not only the first two in the main event, the Group Three Ittlingen-Preis der Winterkönigin, Germany´s top race for two-year-old fillies, but also the winner of the Ferdinand Leisten-Memorial, a BBAG sales race which is the most valuable juvenile race of the season. For good measure, Solider Hollow is also the sire of Dschingis Secret, easy winner of last Saturday´s Italian St. Leger, but that of course does not count towards the German statistics.

Soldier Hollow was bred by Car Colston Hall Stud and bought as a yearling by Rüdiger Alles (IVA) for Helmut von Finck (Gestüt Park Wiedingen) and proved an inspired purchase. Despite a serious illness at three, he was for years Germany´s best middle distance performer and a stakes winner for six successive seasons, including four Group One victories. He retired to stud in 2008, originally at Gestüt Röttgen, but moved to his present base at Auenquelle in 2012. He has three crosses of Northern Dancer and seems to be an ideal cross for German-bred mares from the Surumu/Königsstuhl/Monsun lines. Still owned by von Finck, he is the most expensive stallion in Germany; his last published fee was 15,000 euros in 2015, but is now listed as private and is certainly higher than that. By international standards he is a bargain, but his price is probably as much as the German market will bear.

As it happened, both his big winners at Baden-Baden were owned and bred by Röttgen – Dia Del Sol, out of a Tertullian mare, in the Ferdinand Leisten-Memorial, and Well Spoken, out of a Bertrando mare, in the Winterkönigin. They represent two of Röttgen´s most successful families, and in both cases the first two home left the rest well behind. According to Markus Klug, who trains them both in the grounds of the stud, Dia Del Sol could be a candidate for next year´s Mehl-Mülhens-Rennen (German 2,000 Guineas and sponsored by Röttgen), while Well Spoken, from a family of stayers, is a Preis der Diana (Oaks) possible.

Soldier Hollow´s domestic winnings now come to 1.22 million euros, an extremely high figure for Germany; his closest rival is Areion (Big Shuffle), who also had a good Baden-Baden with the first two home in the Baden-Württemberg-Trophy, which brought his winnings up to the million euro mark. Lord of England (Dashing Blade) and Adlerflug (In The Wings) follow in third and fourth place, with the rest miles behind. The Baden-Württemberg-Trophy was won easily by Palace Prince, back to the form which saw him runner-up in the 2015 Deutsches Derby. He is trained by 74-year-old Andreas Löwe in Cologne, who is nearing the end of a long and distinguished career; he has announced his retirement at the end of this season and his stable will then be taken over by Austrian-born jockey Andreas Suborics.

The turf season is rapidly drawing to an end, and there are only seven days´racing on turf still scheduled, four of them this weekend, with the Group Three Herbst-Stutenpreis at Hanover as Sunday´s big feature. This could also go to the in- form Röttgen/ Klug team with Kasalla (Soldier Hollow again), who is the highest–rated runner by some margin. Stable jockey Adrie de Vries, who partnered both big Baden-Baden winners, has already left for his usual winter in the Middle East, but flies back from Dubai specially to partner the filly, whose best form was a fast-finishing fourth in the Preis der Diana.

However the race which is now attracting the most attention is the Group One Grosser Preis von Bayern on Tuesday, November 1^st (All Saints´ Day, a public holiday in Catholic parts of Germany). This race, the last big mile and a half race in Europe, has attracted a very strong field, thanks to four supplementary entries received on Thursday. Two of them were from Godolphin, who are aiming Hawkbill (Charlie Appleby/ William Buick) and Racing History (Saeed bin Suroor/ Ioritz Mendizibal) at the race.  The former, a three-year-old by Kitten´s Joy, won the Eclipse Stakes in July and last time out was ninth in the Irish Champion Stakes. The latter, a four-year-old by Pivotal, has only run once this year, when a highly respectable sixth in the English Champion. These two races were arguably the two best in Europe this year and both were won by Almanzor from Arc winner Found. They are also of course both run over ten furlongs, and neither Godolphin runner has yet attempted Tuesday´s distance.

They will be up against Germany´s top performers over this trip, notably Protectionist (Monsun), winner of the Grosser Preis von Berlin, and Iquitos (Adlerflug), winner of the Grosser Preis von Baden. Another U.K. runner is Algometer (Archipenko), a good Group Three winner at Newbury last time for trainer David Simcock and owner-breeder Kirsten Rausing, who is making a rare visit to Germany to see her three-year-old, who before that was seventh in the Derby, run. Trainer Jean-Pierre Carvalho has won both runnings of this race since it moved to its present date and has declared two runners, with Savoir Vivre (Adlerflug) clearly his main hope; he has booked Christophe Soumillon for Savoir Vivre, who was beaten by a head in the German Derby and last time was the best three-year-old to finish when eighth in the Arc. The Grosser Preis von Bayern is the best race of the year in Germany and also the final and decisive leg of the German Racing Champions League.

David Conolly-Smith