The English page - Continued success of N.H. German stallions

With racing in Germany still limited to extremely poor racing on the Dortmund sand track on the next two Sundays, it is still the N.H. scene in the U.K. and Ireland which grabs the interest. However not so much the racing itself, which is also at a relatively low level until the all-important Cheltenham meeting starts the week after next, but  the scandal concerning top Irish trainer Gordon Elliott, which is dealt with elsewhere in this issue.

That was terrible – and according to rumour the publication on social media of the awful photograph was an act of revenge by a former girl friend – but we prefer to look on the bright side and have another look at the continuing run of success by German stallions in British and Irish N.H. racing. Two more ex-German stallions we have not so far mentioned are Black Sam Bellamy (Sadler´s Wells) and Winged Love (In the Wings), i.e. both very well-bred Northern Dancer line stallions.

The former, a dual Group One winner, began his stud career at Gestüt Fährhof. Where he has based from 2004 to 2008 and sired among smart winner the multiple Group One scorer Earl of Tinsdal, before moving to Shade Oak Stud; his winners over jumps include The Giant Bolster, twice placed in the Cheltenham Gold Cup and Stayers Hurdle runner-up Sam Spinner. Black Sam Bellamy, who died in 2018, was an own brother to Galileo, currently rated the best stallion in the world and a half-brother to another supersire Sea The Stars. Like him, Winged Love was trained by Aidan O´Brien and he won the Irish Derby in 1995 before retiring to stud at Gestüt Karlshof. He later moved to Tullyraine House Stud in Co. Down and died in 2015. He still has a few runners and the best of them so far is the multiple Grade One winning chaser Twist Magic.

But the sires to have made the most impact recently include Sholokhov, who now stands at Rathbarry Stud, Masked Marvel, who won the Doncaster St. Leger for Björn Nielsen and now stands at Haras d´Etreham and despite his name is a member of the celebrated Ravensberg “W” family, Fährhof-bred Malinas (Lomitas), closely related to Monsun and based at Glenview Stud in Ireland, and of course the various sons of Monsun himself, including Wittekindshof-bred Network, who stood his entire stud career in France and died in 2019 and Schlenderhan-bred Arcadio, who died last year at the Arctic Tack Stud in Co. Wexford, Gentlewave at Yorton Farm, as well as the active sires Getaway, Ocovango, Maxios and Vadamos, all standing at Coolmore studs, Shirocco  (Glenview Stud), Aizavoski, standing in France as well as the own brothers Samum and Schiaparelli, both bred by Karlshof and both winners of the German Derby.

Almost all of these have had winners in the past few days, with Sam´s Adventure (Black Sam Bellamy out of a Strong Gale mare) hitting the jackpot by taking Newcastle´s Eider Chase last Saturday, a major Grand National trial and an important race in its own right. On the same card Hooligan (Aizavoski) won a hurdle handicap, but the best racing that day was at Kempton where Tritonic was an impressive winner of the Grade Two Adonis Juvenile Hurdle; he is a son of the Görlsdorf star Sea The Moon (Sea The Stars), spectacular winner of the 2014 German Derby; he stands at Kirsten Rausing´s Lanwades Stud in Newmarket and following excellent results on the flat, including his first Group One winner last year, is now making quite a name for himself as a N.H. stallion as well, and he is of course out of a Monsun mare.

Tritonic is now one of several 4yo´s with a German background who are scheduled to run in Cheltenham´s Triumph Hurdle, the championship race for this age group. Also that day at Kempton se saw the Fährhof-bred Calico (Soldier Hollow) runner-up in the Grade Two Dovecote Novice Hurdle  and also Erick le Rouge (Aizavoski) and Mister Malarkey (Malinas) take the minor places in the valuable handicap over fences. Fährhof-bred Ecco (Maxios) was runner-up in a hurdle handicap while Guardino (out of a Manduro mare) defeated Unanswered Prayers (Ocovango) to take the bumper

The previous day Striking a Pose (Getaway) had been an easy winner at Exeter, where 9yo Momella (Sholokhov), bred by Dr. Klaus Schulte and a 3,000 euros BBAG yearling, won her third race of the season. At Fontwell on Sunday, German stallions took the first three places in a novice hurdle, when Fantastikas (Davidoff) won from Manvers House (Schiaparelli) and Brewers Project (Aizavovski). Network had a good day at Naas, where Egality Man won and Enjoy d´Allen was runner-up in the big chase.

On Monday at Ayr Sirwilliamwallace (Getaway) was a winner, and the same sire also scored with  Jumping Jet, who won a bumper by 29 lengths (!) at Gowran Park and Somekindofstar, who scored at Leicester, while yesterday (Wednesday) Five Star Getaway was another easy winner for the sire at Leicester.

It is no real surprise that Getaway has had so many winners. Bred by Georg von Ullmann, he was a very tough and consistent performer who won the Grosser Preis von Baden in 2008 and has covered huge books since his arrival in Ireland The same is to a certain extent also true of Schlenderhan´s Arcadio, while Maxios is currently the busiest stallion in the U.K. and Ireland, having covered almost 300 mares last year. This has become a hot potato recently, with the racing authorities in the United States have put a cap of 140 mares to be covered by young stallions. We are not sure how this news will go down in Australia, where apparently no fewer than 28 stallions, mainly in NSW,  covered more than 150 mares last season. Racing is booming in Australia with big prize-money on offer and the recent yearling sales ended with extremely positive results. They also seem to have the Covid-19 problem better under control than the Europeans, and racing in this continent is still suffering from the pandemic with not much relief in sight.

Last year´s Cheltenham Festival was the last major meeting where crowds were allowed on to the racecourse., and there were reportedly 250,000 spectators on the four days of the fixture. This will certainly not be the case this time, but racing will go ahead behind closed doors and with the usual top quality sport. We shall preview the meeting here next week and in particular hope to highlight the races such as the Triumph Hurdle where there is a definite chance of a success for German breeding.

David Conolly-Smith