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The English page - Heavy going at Krefeld

Autor: 

David Conolly-Smith

TurfTimes: 

Ausgabe 493 vom Donnerstag, 09.11.2017

Last Sunday saw the two final group races of the year in Germany run at Krefeld. The going was officially described as “soft”, but as is regrettably often the case in Germany, this description was totally inaccurate. The going was extremely heavy and testing. This clearly did not suit many of the runners and the form must be taken with a pinch of salt. The two favourites in the Niederrhein-Pokal over ten furlongs finished last and second last, and there was a similar result in the Herzog von Ratibor-Rennen for two-year-olds, where the three fancied Markus Klug runners took the last three places. The winners coped better with the conditions, and the right tactics also played a part.

This was especially true of the Niederrhein-Pokal, won by 14-1 shot Veneto (New Approach). A decent handicapper, the four-year-old, racing in the colours of Gestüt Winterhauch, had by far the lowest rating in the field but trainer Andreas Suborics outwitted the opposition by instructing his jockey Alexander Pietsch to take the “Willie Carson route” down the far outside and these tactics proved decisive. Pietsch took Veneto straight to the outside rail after the first bend and when he rejoined the field coming into the straight, he already had a comfortable lead, which he held to the line, finally scoring by three lengths from Devastar (Areion).

The two-year-old race was won by Poldi´s Liebling (Tai Chi), trained by Andreas Wöhler, who was himself in Australia. Poldi´s Liebling had previously been third, after being hampered, in an Italian listed race, where he finished just behind Wiesenbach, who went on to win the Group Three Premio Guido Berardelli on Sunday, giving his sire Jukebox Jury a first group race winner. Poldi´s Liebling was bred by 85-year-old Horst-Dieter Beyer, a regular fixture in Cologne, and is his first black type winner in half a century of owning and breeding thoroughbreds. He is now owned by the von Norman family´s Stall Audenhove, who also race under the Gestüt Hachtsee name. Reginald von Norman also raced the sire Tai Chi (High Chaparral), a smart two-year-old who won the Preis des Winterfavoriten and also finished third in the Criterium de Saint-Cloud, but his later career was cut short. Tai Chi stands at Gestüt Ohlerweiherhof at a fee of 4,500 (up from 3,000) euros and has done very well from limited opportunities. Wiesenbach, like Veneto, is a BBAG graduate, but was considerably cheaper; in fact he can be regarded as a real bargain as he cost only 13,000 euros. He is out of the group race winner Wurfscheibe (Tiger Hill), a half-sister to champion Wurftaube (Acatenango), herself dam of German Derby winner Waldpark (Dubawi) and closely related to St. Leger winner Masked Marvel (Montjeu). He was bred by Gestüt Ravensberg and is a member of their famous “W” family.

Another graduate of the BBAG 2016 Yearling Sale is Julio (Exceed and Excel), bred by Gestüt Brümmerhof and knocked down to Eckhard Sauren, president of the race club at Cologne, for 58,000 euros. This was another bargain, as Julio has this season won over 144,000 euros in prize-money, thanks mainly to his victory in the lucrative BBAG sales race at the Baden-Baden October Meeting. While these sales races sometimes come up with dubious results, in fact Julio´s form looks pretty solid and he has also twice been third in group races. His pedigree is certainly topical, as his third dam Sitara (Salse) is not only closely related to several Group One winners, but is also the dam of Rekindling (High Chaparral), winner this week of the Melbourne Cup.

The German interests in the Melbourne Cup were otherwise less successful; Andreas Wöhler´s Red Cardinal (Montjeu) and French-trained but partly German-owned and –bred Tiberian (Tiberius Caesar) were both drawn out in the car park and were predictably well beaten, as was the Schlenderhan-bred Almandin (Monsun), last year´s winner. However Wöhler´s journey down under was not totally wasted, as his (Mr) Garcia (Paco Boy), also owned by Australian Bloodstock, won a handicap at the meeting. Monsun also had a good winner last week, as Arles, previously trained by Wöhler but now with Graham Motion, won the Long Island Handicap at Aqueduct.

There was little direct German interest in the Breeders´ Cup races, but Wuheida (Dubawi) gave the form of this year´s Henkel-Preis der Diana a boost by winning the Fillies and Mares Turf; she had finished only third at Düsseldorf, but it must be said that the 2200 metres trip at Düsseldorf was too far for her, while the 1800 metres at Del Mar were ideal. Talismanic´s (Medaglio d´Oro) victory in the Turf itself was also a compliment to Dschingis Secret (Soldier Hollow), who had beaten him fair and square in the Prix Foy.

With only one more flat meeting on turf to come -and that a relatively modest, with all due respect, fixture at Dresden in a fortnight- there is likely to be no more racing in Germany in 2017 of major interest. The regular “English page” in Turf-Times is therefore now to go into hibernation and will return for the opening of the turf season in mid-March 2018. We wish all our readers a happy, healthy and successful winter.

David Conolly-Smith

 

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