The English page: Two significant classic trials

Two significant classic trials, arguably the most important of the season, take centre stage this week. Last Sunday we had the Diana-Trial for fillies at Hoppegarten, and now this coming Sunday the Oppenheim Union- Rennen at Cologne.

The Diana- Trial looked wide open, and so it proved with a narrow success for Gestüt Görlsdorf´s homebred Meergörl (Adlerflug) who just headed Pagella (Soldier Hollow) in the final strides to win by a neck. Three and a half lengths back came Gestüt Röttgen´s homebred Kasalla (also by Soldier Hollow, who started his stallion career at Röttgen but is now based at Auenquelle), just in front of the favourite Night Music (Sea The Stars), the pacemaker Mary Sun (another Soldier Hollow) and Wild Approach (New Approach).

This race was run over ten furlongs, while the Preis der Diana itself, to be run at Düsseldorf on August 7^th, is over eleven, but with the exception of Mary Sun, who is to be kept at the Hoppegarten distance, all the other fillies are expected to run in the big race, as well as possibly some of those who finished further back. Meergörl finished best of all last Sunday and also benefited from an excellent ride by Freddie Tylicki, who will no doubt partner her again at Düsseldorf, but the result is by no means certain to be confirmed there. Indeed Racebets currently has four joint-favourites for the classic at 6-1, including the first three from the Hoppegarten race.

Meergörl, trained locally by Roland Dzubasz, is from the third full crop of Adlerflug (In The Wings), who won the Deutsches Derby for Schlenderhan, who bred him, in 2007; he now stands at Gestüt Harzburg and is the property of a syndicate, with Görlsdorf among the shareholders. He has made a very encouraging start to his stallion career, with Schlenderhan´s Ito a Group One winner from his second crop. Generally speaking, his offspring stay well and improve with age, which augurs well for Meergörl´s prospects. She is descended from an old GDR line; her third dam Meerdünung (Tauchsport) was third in the 1990 DDR Derby. This family has done extremely well when mated with classier stallions. Meerdünung´s daughter by Dashing Blade, Monbijou, bred Monami (Sholokhov), who won the Diana—Trial at Hoppegarten in 2012, and also Italian Oaks winner Meridiana (Lomitas), later sent to the States where she won a Group Two and has since done really well as a broodmare.

The Union-Rennen should certainly clear up some of the uncertainty regarding the German Derby which will be run at Hamburg on July 10^th. Boscaccio (Mount Nelson) is unbeaten in three starts and has nothing wrong so far. He is currently favourite for the Derby and if he wins convincingly on Sunday will undoubtedly start hot favourite at Hamburg. However several of those close to him in the early betting on the race will oppose him on Sunday, so that a shake-up of the ante-post market is a possibility. Boscaccio is trained in Hanover by Christian Sprengel and will be ridden by Dennis Schiergen, who has partnered him in all his races so far. Dennis is the eldest son of Cologne trainer Peter Schiergen, who will himself saddle Bora Rock (Rock of Gibraltar) in the race with his younger son Vinzenz in the saddle.

Of more interest however could be Savoir Vivre (Adlerflug), trained by Jean-Pierre Carvalho and for whom Freddie Tylicki has been booked. He won his maiden over this course and distance very easily, before not getting the run of the race when only fourth at Mülheim next time. He finished that day behind Light Of Air (Youmzain), and Jaber Abdullah´s colt from the Height of Fashion family looks to be one of the runners who can be guaranteed to stay the Derby distance. He is one of two runners saddled by Andreas Wöhler, whose stable jockey Eduardo Pedroza partners Cashman (Soldier of Fortune), easy winner of both his 2016 starts. Markus Klug is another trainer with two runners: El Loco (Lope de Vega) and Dschingis Secret (Soldier Hollow), with the stable´s main jockey Adrie de Vries on the former. Klug won this race two years ago with Sea The Moon (Sea The Stars), who went on to become one of easiest German Derby winners ever.

Soldier Hollow is also the sire of Parthenius, trained by Mario Hofer. He was a top two-year-old last year and is a full brother to 2012 German Derby winner Pastorius. Parthenius was actually due to run in the Prix du Jockey Club the week before last, but was withdrawn by the French stewards owing to irregularities in the markings in his passport. Assuming that this problem has now been solved, Parthenius looks a very interesting runner at Cologne in a race that should answer plenty of questions.

David Conolly-Smith