The English page: Racing & Breeding in Germany 24

This is a relatively quiet period for German racing, between the end of the Grosse Woche at Baden-Baden twelve days ago and the Europa-Meeting at Cologne at the end of next week. The only group race last weekend was the Grosse Europa Meile at Munich, and this weekend it will be the German St. Leger atDortmund, both Group Three races.

The Munich race, now sponsored by Honda, was won on good style by Dirk von Mitzlaff's homebred Pas de Deux, a five-year-old gelding trained at Mülheim by Yasmin Almenräder and ridden with confidence by the young French jockey Antoine Coutier, who kept him covered up until two furlongs out and then unleashed him to run on very strongly and score by two and a half lengths from the outsider Mata Utu (Slickly), with Diplomat (Teofilo), who finished lame, a close third. Pas de Deux had been supplemented for this race and only a fortnight earlier he had won a Group Three over ten furlongs at Baden-Baden. That had been both the first group winner for the trainer, who has now taken over the stables of the late lamented Werner Baltromei, and also for his sire Saddex (Sadler´s Wells), a multiple group winner in Germany who originally stood at Gestüt Westerberg but is now in France. Now of course they have both doubled up.

The complete race video, photos and full result here (under "Renndetails"/Pas de Deux/No. 1: click! 

The owner missed both these successes, as he was on holiday during the Baden-Baden meeting and playing golf last Sunday. He also owned the second dam Puntilla (Acatenango), who was from a good Fährhof family and won the 2000 Preis der Diana in his colours. Dirk von Mitzlaff bears one of the most distinguished names in German racing history, and his father Sven was one of the most successful German trainers of all time.

The Grosser Preis von DSW21 – 131^st Deutsches St. Leger, to give it its full title, is open to older horses like the equivalent events in France and Ireland, and sees four of them line up against five three-year-olds, of whom the supplemented Nordic Flight (Adlerflug), one of four runners for Cologne trainer Peter Schiergen and the choice of stable jockey Andrasch Starke, could be the best. The dangers could be Wasir (Rail Link), whose trainer Andreas Wöhler has already taken three of the four German classics so far run this year, and Shadow Sadness (Soldier Hollow), whose spring form at Frankfurt reads well. He will be well suited by the likely soft ground, which should also help Schiergen's Girolamo (Dai Jin), at six the oldest horse in the field, while the filly Virginia Sun (Doyen) was runner-up in this last season but well below form in her three runs this year.

Looking to the future, we saw three interesting two-year-old winners last weekend. The German programme for two-year-olds only really starts to get going after Baden-Baden and we shall no doubt be seeing more promising juveniles in the next month or so, but the time being Jaber Abdullah's homebred Noor al Hawa (Makfi) looks the best one seen so far in Germany, and his easy win at Düsseldorf last Saturday was given the relatively high rating of GAG 88 (= about 81). The listed Junioren-Rennen has been won in the past by many top German horses, including Group One stars such as Lando and Lomitas. He has been entered in next year´s Deutsches Derby, which closed this week, and is the bookmakers' early ante-post favourite for that race.

The complete race video, photos and full result here (under "Renndetails"/Noor al Hawa/No. 7: click! 

The name apparently means “light of air” and Jaber Abdullah clearly likes that, as he has another two-year-old in training with Andreas Wöhler with that name (in English), who won at the recent Baden-Baden meeting. Wöhler has been having a fantastic season with the Jaber Abdullah runners playing a major role, and this looks as if will continue into 2016. Noor al Hawa also has an excellent pedigree, being out of the Group One winner Majestic Roi (Street Cry); his fourth dam is the highly influential Fanfreluche (Northern Dancer).

The other two juvenile winners worth watching are Litex Commerce's homebred Mungus (Rock of Gibraltar), trained by Miltcho Mintchev in Cologne, who made all the running to win at Munich. He could run next in the Preis des Winterfavoriten, a race his owner-breeder and trainer (both Bulgarians) won last year. It was only a humble maiden race, but there were almost certainly good future winners in the field, and the runner-up Parthenius (Soldier Hollow), a full brother to 2012 German Derby winner Pastorius, also looks one to follow. Meanwhile Pagino (Sholokhov) narrowly won the valuable BBAG sales race at Düsseldorf half an hour after Noor al Hawa´s success. He was bred by Gestüt Etzean, sold for 30,000 euros at the BBAG yearling sale to Swiss agent Andy Wyss and now runs in the colours of Stall Dipoli. He is out of a Dashing Blade mare from a family that has produced numerous black type winners in recent years- indeed the very closely – related Peace Society (Iffraaj) won the listed Coolmore Cup at Baden-Baden only a fortnight ago.

The complete race video: Mungus/No. 5: click! 

The complete race: Pagino/No. 6: click!