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The English page: Boscaccio strengthened his position as ante-post favourite for the Deutsches Derby

Autor: 

Daniel Delius

TurfTimes: 

Ausgabe 423 vom Donnerstag, 23.06.2016

Boscaccio (Mount Nelson) strengthened his position as ante-post favourite for the Deutsches Derby, to be run at Hamburg on July 10th, with a convincing success last Sunday in the 181st Oppenheim- Union- Rennen at Cologne, the oldest race in the German calendar and usually the most reliable Derby trial. He is now unbeaten in four starts and seems to have all the attributes required for classic success.

After a long run of success in the race for the big trainers, and in many case for large owner-breeders as well, it would be a welcome victory for a small trainer, Christian Sprengel, who has just 15 horses in his Hanover yard, and a small owner, Rainer Hupe + friends. These owners (Hupe, a retired telecoms executive, explained after the race that he and his wife own 70% of Boscaccio and that the “friends” are three married couples with 10% each) own just the one horse – and that is the Derby favourite.

Rainer Hupe owned a good horse with Derby prospects three years ago. Orsello, another son of Mount Nelson and also bred by Gestüt Fährhof finished third in the 2013 Union-Rennen (to subsequent Group One winners Ivanhowe and Empoli) but was injured before the Derby and never ran again. Fährhof offered the owner an early pick of their yearlings the following year, and happily enough, Boscaccio was the choice. He was originally sent to Norbert Sauer at Dortmund, who had trained Orsello, but after his tragic death last year, Christian Sprengel became the new trainer.

“I knew from an early stage that he was very talented,” says the trainer, “and that is why I gave him an easy time last year, with just the one start (a narrow victory at his home track of Hanover)”. Boscaccio started early this year, winning easily at Hoppegarten in late March, then making all to with Hanover´s listed Derby-Trial and finally last week, the crowning glory so far, the Union-Rennen. Although the margin of success at three quarters of a length was relatively small, it was a very comfortable victory. Dennis Schiergen, the 21-year-old son of trainer Peter Schiergen, rides him in all the starts – and used to partner Orsello as well-and was not hard pressed to hold off the strong challenge of El Loco (Lope de Vega), who had taken the lead early in the straight. Dschingis Secret (Soldier Hollow) finished best of all to go third, with Berghain (Medicean) making up a lot of ground to finish fourth, having been last into the straight.

Logically it is difficult to imagine any of these horses overturning the Cologne form at Hamburg, although most of them will probably try, and on the form book the only German-trained danger to Boscaccio would appear to be Wai Key Star (Soldier Hollow) who beat El Loco more easily at Baden-Baden three weeks ago than did Boscaccio last week. The handicapper sees it that way, and in his provisional ratings for the German Derby has put Wai Key Star in pole position on a GAG of 96 (=112), with Boscaccio a pound below him on 111.

There is a last ditch Derby trial this Sunday at Bremen and several outsiders will be hoping to book their tickets to Hamburg then. However most of them will have to make dramatic improvement to have any chance of competing with the placed horses from the Union-Rennen, let alone the winner. The most interesting runner at Bremen is Norwegian-trained Our Last Summer (Zamindar), winner of three of his four starts in Norway, including the local 2,000 Guineas. Others with a chance include Russian Flamenco (Tertullian) and Licinius (Halling).

One aspect of the Derby is the fact that practically none of the intended runners has ever run over the distance. Both the Union-Rennen and the Hanover Derby trial were over eleven furlongs, while the Baden-Baden race won by Wai Key Star was over ten.  In addition several of the trials were run at a slow pace, including the Union-Rennen; a flat out race over a mile and a half race is something none of the runners has ever encountered, but Boscaccio would appear to have the best prospects in this regard as well. He was certainly staying on well when winning last Sunday – better in my view than the runner-up El Loco, and the two horses that finished well there – Dschingis Secret and Berghain could in fact turn out to be the main dangers in Hamburg.

Boscaccio is the first foal out of Bianca de Medici, a Medicean mare sold by Fährhof in the December following his birth for 50,000 euros at the Arqana Breeding Stock Sale. Mount Nelson out of a Medicean mare – that looks more like a middle distance pedigree, but in fact one does not need to delve very deep to find top-class winners at the Derby distance in Boscaccio´s pedigree, as Bianca de Medici´s dam is an own sister to the dam of dual “Arc” winner Treve from the family of Trillion and Triptych.

The Bremen race on Sunday is not the only classic trial this weekend in Germany, as Düsseldorf stages an interesting listed race for three-year-old fillies on Saturday, in which almost all the runners are also entered in the Preis der Diana (German Oaks) on August 7th . However the locals, headed by Gestüt Wittekindshof´s Serienholde (Soldier Hollow), runner-up in last year´s Preis der Winterkönigin and impressive winner of her only start this season, will have to be at their best to see off the challenge of the Aga Khan´s  Elennga (Exceed and Excel) easy winner of a decent Deauiville handicap last time, She is trained by the hottest trainer in Europe right now – Jean-Claude Rouget- and will be partnered by the Aga Khan´s main jockey Christophe Soumillon, so it is clear that they mean business.

Only group race in Germany this weekend is Sunday´s Grosser Preis der Wirtschaft over 1750 metres at Dortmund. Wild Chief (Doyen) has run some good races this year in much better company in France and is the obvious favourite.

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