The English page: Convincing victory for Stall Ullman's Guiliani

Last Sunday´s Spring Mile at Düsseldorf, the first German group race of 2016, ended in a convincing victory for Stall Ullmann´s Guiliani (Tertullian), who showed a nice turn of foot to master the hot favourite Lucky Lion (High Chaparral) inside the distance and score quite comfortably by three parts of a length. The first two are both past winners of Munich´s Grosser Dallmayr-Preis, but while Guiliani carried a three kilos penalty for winning Germany´s top ten furlong race last year, Lucky Lion, who has not won since his 2014 success in Munich, was actually receiving four kilos from the winner. This makes Guiliani´s win even more meritorious, and he has an obvious chance of repeating his Dallmayr-Preis  success, as that race in late July is now seen as his main mid-season target. Trainer Jean-Pierre Carvalho nominated the Prix d´Ispahan over nine furlongs at Chantilly as his likely next race, while Andreas Löwe will keep Lucky Lion at a mile and probably run him next in the Badener Meile.

Apart from that race for four-year-olds and older, the chief interest at Düsseldorf was centred on the three races for three-year-olds, all of which threw up plausible classic candidates. The three winners of these races were all partnered by Dutch jockey Adrie de Vries, having his first rides of the year in Germany after almost half a year riding with great success in the Middle East.  De Vries also rode a fourth winner, but had to settle for second place on Lucky Lion in the main event, while he was also hit with a four day suspension by the stewards for whip abuse.

That suspension followed his success on Gestüt Wittekindshof´s homebred Swinging Duke (Duke of Marmalade)in the listed Derby Trial over eleven furlongs. Rather lethargic in the early stages, Swinging Duke picked up really well in the straight, coming with a strong run to lead inside the final furlong and quickly putting the race to bed. This was certainly quite an impressive performance and Swinging Duke, whose trainer won the German Derby two years ago and whose sire was responsible for last year´s winner, was immediately made joint-favourite in early betting on the Hamburg classic. He is also bred for the job, as his dam Saldenschwinge (In The Wings) won group races over eleven and twelve furlongs, and is also a half-sister to the dam of Salomina (Lomitas), winner of the Preis der Diana. This is one of the most successful families in postwar German breeding.

Gestüt Hachtsee´s Zirconic Star (Samum) and Stall Nizza´s Nimrod (High Chaparral), both homebreds, were the placed horses in that listed race, and are also both quoted among the favourites for the Deutsches Derby. Both sets of connections expressed themselves satisfied. Yasmin Almenräder, trainer of the former said her colt will now have a break until the Union-Rennen in mid-June, as he has already been quite busy this year, while Nimrod – a half-brother to last year´s Preis von Europa winner Nightflower (Dylan Thomas) - reminds one of his close relation Nutan (Duke of Marmalade), who won the 2015 German Derby for the same connections last year.

Trainer Markus Klug describes Swinging Duke as a “surprise packet” as he does nothing at all at homer, but he is clearly smart. Klug has his three-year-olds in good form and an hour earlier had sent out Gestüt Röttgen´s homebred Kasalla (Soldier Hollow) to win a fillies´ maiden over the extended ten furlongs in good style. She is a full sister to the smart Kassiano, runner-up in a Meydan Group One, and also closely related to Kallisto (Sternkönig). winner of the Italian Derby in the days when it was a strong Group One, and now a resident stallion at Röttgen. Klug regards her as a potential Preis der Diana filly and she is now joint second favourite for that classic, to be run at Düsseldorf on August 7^th.

Classic prospects take centre stage again this weekend, when the main event is the Group Three Karin Baronin von Ullmann- Schwarzgold-Rennen for three-year-old fillies over a mile at Cologne on Sunday. This is a leading trial for the German 1,000 Guineas, to be run at Düsseldorf on June 5^th and is almost always won by a top filly – although surprisingly no recent winner had gone on to take the 1,000 Guineas itself. Markus Klug has another strong hand here with two fillies, Dhaba (Areion) and the oddly-named Tickle Me Blue (Iffraaj), homebreds from Gestüt Park Wiedingen and Gestüt Görlsdorf respectively. Dhaba was a good winner of last year´s Preis der Winterkönigin, and is top-rated as a result of that prestigious success, but there are plenty of dangers, including Andreas Wöhler´s pair Australian Bloodstock´s Double Dream (Lawman) – already a good winner this year- and Gestüt Fährhof´s Quidura (Dubawi); the latter has arguably the best pedigree in the field and was recently described by Wöhler as his best three-year-old filly. This should be an extremely informative race.

David Conolly-Smith