Breeding & Racing in Germany
In order to be of assistance to our growing number of readers from abroad, we are with immediate effect publishing in every issue of Turf Times an English page, giving in compact form all the latest racing and breeding news from Germany in English.
When we introduced “The English page” in Turf Times a few years ago, there was no question about the author. Our English readers could not be better informed about what was happening here than by David Conolly-Smith. Born in Nottingham, the Englishman, correspondent for various British and Irish specialist newspapers, German representative of the International Racing Bureau, contact point for all active people from the island, lived in Munich and horse racing was his passion. He passed away on July 9, 2023 at the age of 83. It was his wish that Shannon Patricia Spratter should continue the English-language column in his place. He was friends with her father, the Irish-born trainer John David hillis, wo is working in Munich, and the apple doesn't fall far from the tree. Our columnist briefly introduces herself here.
Writes the column for the English-speaking Turf Times readers: Shannon Spratter with her father, former jockey and current gallop trainer, John David Hillis. Foto: privat
My name is Shannon Patricia Spratter and I was born into racing through my father, former jockey and now trainer, John David Hillis and mother, Jeanette Spratter.
Due to the recommendation of David Conolly-Smith, I have taken over his part with great enthusiasm and now write the English edition about our German racing.
When I'm not in front of the computer writing texts or pursuing my main job, I spend my time at my father's racing stable. My favourite hobby is riding races as an amateur.
The Berlin racecourse Hoppegarten celebrates its 150th birthday this year; it was officially opened on May 17th 1868 by the Prussian King Wilhelm I and his chancellor Otto von Bismarck. The racetrack was organized and funded by the , an association of Prussian landowners, aristocrats and Berlin socialites. Within a few years, Germany had been united under Prussian leadership, Berlin was the capital of the German Reich, the King was now a Kaiser and Hoppegarten had quickly become the leading racecourse and training centre in the country. Well over 1,000 horses were in training, wealthy owner-breeders like the Oppenheims from Cologne and the Weinbergs from Frankfurt established large stables here.
weiterlesen »Our article last week on the successes of the „W“,“N” and “S” families has already received some significant updates. Waldgeist (Galileo) ran out an easy winner of the Prix d´Hedouville at Longchamp on Sunday. He is out of the Monsun mare Waldlerche, winner of the Prix Penelope for Gestüt Bernried (a division of Gestüt Ammerland), who is a half-sister to St. Leger winner Masked Marvel and also closely related to German Derby winner Waldpark. Both Waldpark and Masked Marvel are now stallions who will be having their first runners year; this family is however not noted for precocious two-year-olds so the fireworks – if any - can be expected in 2019.
weiterlesen »Last weekend saw some good racing from Hoppegarten and Krefeld, but some surprising results. This was certainly true of Krefeld´s main event, the Group Three Dr. Busch-Memorial, the most important early season classic trial, which went to the Libyan-owned Kronprinz (Lord of England), who ran on strongly from the rear to win convincingly from Weltstar (Soldier Hollow), a half-brother to last year´s German Derby winner Windstoss (Shirocco), with the favourite, the Australian-owned Wild Max (Maxios) well back. However the latter is excused, as he picked up an injury in the starting stalls – nothing too serious, according to trainer Andreas Wöhler.
weiterlesen »Just as is the case in the U.K., France and Ireland this month, classic trials are in the spotlight this month in Germany. Last Sunday we had the Karin Baronin von Ullmann- Schwarzgold-Rennen at Cologne, one of the best early trials for the German 1,000 Guineas, to be run at Düsseldorf on May 27thz, and this Sunday the Dr. Busch-Memorial at Krefeld, a race which has always had a considerable influence on the German 2,000 Guineas at Cologne on May 21st and even on the German Derby at Hamburg on July 8th at Hamburg as well as the Grosser Dallmayr-Preis at Munich on July 29th, Germany´s top ten furlongs race.
weiterlesen »Last weekend the only racing we had was at Düsseldorf, and the two main events were both won by horses whose trainers had expressed reservations before the race that their charges might still be a bit backward following the long cold spell. In the event locally-trained Wonnemond (Areion) won the Group Three mile race in good style, coming as usual with a late run from last place, while the listed race for three-year-olds saw Darius Racing's French-bred Alounak (Camelot) put up the best performance so far seen in Germany this year.
weiterlesen »Last weekend´s Easter racing saw action at several tracks and luckily there was much less rain in Germany than was the case in the U.K. and Ireland, although obviously the going was soft everywhere. Crowds were out in large numbers too, which is a positive sign for the big events to come. Nearly 8,000 showed up for Bremen´s Good Friday meeting, the largest crowd for many years here, but this was partly due to nostalgia as this was in all likelihood the last ever race meeting at this attractive north German track. The city of Bremen owns the property and wants to build much-needed housing on the land; there is a lot of opposition, including a petition aimed at making the city hold a referendum on the subject, but the chance of a reprieve seems slim.
weiterlesen »The turf season in Germany began last Sunday and, although it is very early days yet, we saw some possible classic prospects running in the first three races. The card kicked off with a three-year-old maiden over 2100 metres and the interesting one seemed to be Ecco (Maxios),a 40,000 euros BBAG yearling who is a half-brother to last year´s German Derby runner-up Enjoy Vijay (Nathaniel). He was joint favourite with Theo (Manduro), who cost twice as much as a yearling and had the best juvenile form in the field. Unfortunately it was a very messy race, with one horse riderless at the start and several badly hampered. Both the favourites were slowly away, but while Ecco never got into the race and looked unhappy on the track, Theo came with a smooth run in the straight to cut down the front-runner Breezy Bell (Soldier Hollow) and win by a length and three-quarters.
weiterlesen »This has been a very long and cold winter in Germany, just as in the rest of Western Europe, and even this week we have had snow and frost in many parts of the country. However spring is coming and the winter is almost over – as we can see from the racing fixtures, with the first two turf meetings of 2018 this Sunday (weather permitting!) at Düsseldorf and Mannheim. For the past three months we have had to make do with mainly extremely low level racing on the sand tracks at Neuss and Dortmund, which have frankly been of minimal interest except to immediate connections; the last one is at Dortmund today (Friday).Of course they also fulfil a useful function and give opportunities to earn some prize-money to horses that would certainly be incapable of this on any of the leading turf tracks.
weiterlesen »There is no real German equivalent to last week´s Route des Etalons in France or the previous week´s ITM Irish Stallion Trail as the distances are simply too big – from Görlsdorf in the North to Ammerland in the South it is getting on for 500 miles, but this Saturday´s “Züchtertreff” (Breeders´ Meeting) and Stallion Parade at Gestüt Röttgen comes close. Röttgen, on the outskirts of Cologne and near Cologne/Bonn airport, is the most luxurious stud farm in Germany. It was established in 1925 by Peter Mülhens, who made his money with the “4711” eau de cologne brand, and is now owned by a trust fund set up by his late daughter Maria Mehl-Mülhens and managed by Dr. Günter Paul. The fund not only runs the stud and racing stables, currently highly successful under trainer Markus Klug, but is also a major sponsor (German 2,000 Guineas) and huge benefactor of the German racing industry.
weiterlesen »In the past seven years, German-bred and –trained horses have won the Arc, the King George (twice), the Ganay, the Melbourne Cup and other major events all over the world. Going back a bit further we have winners of the Eclipse, the Coronation Cup, the Prix de l´Opera, the Cadran, the Japan Cup and more. This year was by comparison very meagre indeed. The two biggest wins abroad were in Turkey, where Wonnemond (Areion), trained by Düsseldorf by Sascha Smrczek, won the Topkapi Trophy, and in New York, where the Belmont Gold Cup was won by Red Cardinal (Montjeu), trained by Andreas Wöhler but Irish-bred and Australian-owned.
weiterlesen »The big race last weekend in Germany was the WEMPE 907th German 1,000 Guineas at Düsseldorf, which featured two strong contestants from Newmarkert: William Haggas´ Cristal Fizz (Power) and Hugo Palmer´s Unforgetable Filly (Sepoy). Both trainers knew what was required, as Haggas had sent Lockheed (Exceed and Excel) to Cologne four weeks earlier to finish a neck second in the German 2,000 Guineas with the same jockey, Pat Cosgrave, aboad and the colt was sold last Monday for an amazing 900,000 GBP at the Goffs London Sale, while Palmer had won the 1,000 Guineas last year with Hawksmoor (Azamour) – a good winner at the recent big Belmont Park meeting – and had booked the same jockey, James Doyle.
weiterlesen »This is the time of year for classic trials, and although the German classics are much later than the equivalent races in England and France, the trials are now in full swing. We had some very interesting races for three-year-olds last weekend with more to come in the next few days.
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