Breeding & Racing in Germany

Last week´s Spring Meeting at Baden-Baden can be classed as a success, partly as a result of a sudden change in the weather. On the Tuesday it was still cold and wet, by Thursday it was sunny and very warm, and it got hotter every day. For horses that wanted soft ground conditions were not ideal, although strangely enough the two that dominated the Group Two Badener Meile on the opening day are both regarded as soft ground specialists, French-trained The Revenant (Dubawi) and Irish-trained Imaging (Oasis Dream).

The German racing paper „Sport-Welt“ headlined its issue last week for the meeting at Cologne featuring the Mehl-Mülhens-Rennen (German 2,000 Guineas) with the phrase “historic classic”, referring to the fact that never before had eight foreign-trained horses run in the first German classic of the season. Six of them were trained in the U.K. and one each in Ireland and France. In the event the race turned out to be a historic disaster from the German point of view. The first five home (i.e. all the prize-money!) were English-trained, the Irish runner was sixth and the other English runner seventh. The French filly was never in the race and finished last, while the three German runners took the eighth, ninth and tenth places, a complete whitewash for the home team.

Gütersloh trainer Andreas Wöhler seems to have a very strong hand for the upcoming top races in Germany, and he saddled three good three-year-old winners this week. At Cologne on Sunday, he won both the races for this age group, first with Hans Wirth´s homebred filly Candy Crush (Lord of England), who scored over nine furlongs, and then with Gestüt Ittlingen´s homebred Laccario (Scalo), who was hardly out of a canter to win over eleven furlongs. Candy Crush was unplaced on her two previous starts, and Wöhler commented that she had run green, but was much better this time; she still needs more experience, but in the long run she could be a black type performer.

This is the time of year when classic trials are in the spotlight, and Germany is no exception. Last Monday we saw a good trial at Cologne for the German 1,000 Guineas (at Düsseldorf on May 26^th, the German classics all being run several weeks later than the equivalent races in the U.K.).This was won in tremendous style by Team Valor´s Axana (Soldier Hollow), trained by Andreas Wöhler, winning this race for the fourth time in six years, and the trainer seems to have a very strong hand to play this season. Axana´s performance was certainly the best by a German three-year-old so far this year; this is also the opinion of the handicapper who has bumped her up by six kilos (almost a stone) to a GAG of 94(= international 108), making her currently the top-rated filly in Germany. She is also early favourite in betting on the German 1,000 Guineas, and second favourite for the Preis der Diana (Oaks) on August 4^th, also at Düsseldorf.

So, Brexit has been postponed until October, which means up to six more months of agony, as the hopeless and hapless U.K. government under the incompetent Theresa May tries to dig itself out of the hole caused by David Cameron´s disastrous referendum. However there is one item of good news: it was confirmed this week that the E.U. has agreed that the U.K. will in any case be granted “third country status” after Brexit regarding the free movement of live animals. At the moment the tripartite agreement between the U.K. France and Ireland regulates this, and third country status basically means the status quo will be maintained. This is of great importance to the U.K. racing and bloodstock industries and also especially to the Irish, as most Irish horses travel via England when coming to the mainland. By extension it can also only be positive for Germany.