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.
Despite the return of wintry weather, there was some very interesting racing over the Easter weekend, with some clear pointers tot he upcoming classics. Bremen started the roll rolling with its traditional Good Friday meeting, featuring the Acatenango Derby Trial, which is actually a race for maidens, but has produced two winners of the German Derby in the past decade. Ironically the race was won by a colt who has not been entered in the classic, Stall Lucky Owner´s Walsingham (Campanologist), a 12,000 euros BBAG purchase. Walsingham clearly stays well and is probably quite useful, but he certainly got the run of the race here, with most of the candidates very green and running all over the place.
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At last, sanity prevails – or so it seems. At a lengthy hearing at Cologne on Monday, the appeals panel threw out the objections of the connections of Dschinghis Secret (Soldier Hollow) third-placed in last July´s Deutsches Derby, to the first two in that Hamburg classic: Isfahan (Lord of England) and Savoir Vivre (Adlerflug). In a very close finish Isfahan had scored by a head with Dschinghis Secret only a neck away in third. The jockeys on the first two were subsequently suspended and ordered by the Hamburg stewards to forfeit most of their percentage of the prize-money because they had contravened the German whip rules. This is the normal procedure in such cases, as well as international usage, but Dschinghis Secret´s connections were not satisfied and have attempted to have the first two horses disqualified, which would have set an alarming precedent.
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The German turf season got off to a good start last Sunday at Düsseldorf, when 14,360 racegoers turned up to enjoy some nice weather and a good card. The main event, the listed Grand Prix Aufgalopp over 2100 metres went to Mighty Mouse (King´s Best), who finished strongly from the rear to score by half a length and the same from Salve Venezia (Areion) and San Salvador (Lord of England). This was a popular win for a small stable.
weiterlesen »Turf racing resumes this weekend in Germany with meetings at Düsseldorf and Mannheim, both on Sunday. We have had to suffer four months of winter with only a handful of dreary race meetings on the two sand tracks at Neuss and Dortmund, consisting mainly of very low grade handicaps.
weiterlesen »We list below in alphabetical order the five new stallions in Germany for 2017, all Group One winners:
GUILIANI, 2011, Tertullian- Guadalupe (Monsun)
Guliiani was a smart miler, but his best performance came when winning the Group One Dallmayr-Preis over ten furlongs at Munich in 2015. In all he won 5 of his 13 starts. There were high hopes for him last year, but after winning a Group Three over a mile on his debut at Düsseldorf he was injured and had to be retired. He raced throughout in the colours of his breeder Stall Ullmann and was trained by Jean-Pierre Carvalho.
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There was plenty of good news for the German racing and breeding industries in 2016 – but plenty of bad news as well. On the credit side – literally! - came the news earlier this month that German bookmaker RaceBets, the official betting partner of German Racing, has been sold to the Swedish online gaming giant Betsson for 34 million euros (with a further 6 million possibly to follow). The German racing industry, desperately short of cash, owns 39.52% of RaceBets, so is going to collect an unexpected windfall of some 13 million euros once the deal is completed.
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The last few days have seen the final black type races of 2016 in Germany – a listed race over seven furlongs at Dortmund on Sunday and a listed race over eleven furlongs at Dresden on Wednesday (a public holiday in parts of Germany). The latter event went to Iraklion (Areion), trained in Hanover by Christian Sprengel, who came from a long way back to win comfortably enough from the Czech raider Dally Hit (Ad Valorem), a bargain buy who cost just 1,500 euros at Tattersalls Ireland. With all due respect, this was not a great race and none of the runners had an international rating of 100.
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The last significant German two-year-old race of the season was run at Krefeld last Sunday, and Stall Reckendorf's Colomano (Cacique) ran out a ready winner of the Herzog von Ratibor-Rennen after racing towards the rear for most of the way. He ran on strongly in the final stages to defeat the front-running favourite Kastano (Nathaniel) by one and three-quarters lengths, with another Nathaniel colt Enjoy Vijay a close third.
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This has been a good week for the German bloodstock industry, with many of the world´s top races won by horses with German connections. Pride of place goes to Almandin (Monsun), bred by Gestüt Schlenderhan and winner of the Melbourne Cup in the early hours of Tuesday morning (European time); he became the third son of Monsun to win this race in the past four years, an impressive record. The Australian scouts have been active in Germany for several years – since Lucas Cranach (Mamool) finished third in the “race that stops a nation” in 2011, looking for similar types to do well in their big staying races, and have on the whole been very successful.
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Any doubts about the identity of this year´s champion sire in Germany were dispelled at last weekend´s Baden-Baden meeting when Soldier Hollow (In The Wings) sired not only the first two in the main event, the Group Three Ittlingen-Preis der Winterkönigin, Germany´s top race for two-year-old fillies, but also the winner of the Ferdinand Leisten-Memorial, a BBAG sales race which is the most valuable juvenile race of the season. For good measure, Solider Hollow is also the sire of Dschingis Secret, easy winner of last Saturday´s Italian St. Leger, but that of course does not count towards the German statistics.
weiterlesen »The highlight of Germanys racing week was undoubtedly Potemkins Prix Dollar (Gr. 2, 2000m) win at Chantillys Arc Meeting. In defeating a strong international field the 5yr old, a son of New Approach, won his eighth race, his first at Group 2 Level. In doing so he proved connections right who skipped a domestic Group 3 race to travel to France. Owned in joint partnership by Ex-Footballer Klaus Allofs, who represented Germany in 56 International games and won the European Championships in 1980, and breeder Fährhof Stud Potemkin is a graduate of the BBAG Sales where he sold for 180,000 in 2012 to Manfred Hofer, only to part-return into Fährhofs ownership.
weiterlesen »Nightflower (Dylan Thomas) won last Sunday´s Preis von Europa and thus became the first filly ever to win Cologne´s biggest race of the year more than once. The four-year-old is trained on the course by Peter Schiergen, his fourth win in five years in this event, and was beautifully ridden by stable jockey Andrasch Starke. Nightflower was certainly not winning out of turn, as she had been runner-up on her last two starts to Protectionist (Monsun) in the Grosser Preis von Berlin and then to Iquitos (Adlerflug) in the Grosser Preis von Baden.
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