The English page - German stallions, continued

We looked at some German-bred stallions standing abroad last week and in the meantime we have more information on Kamsin (Samum), the 2008 German Derby winner, and arguably the best son of Samum, who himself won the Germany Derby in the year 2000 and proved himself as a sire of top performers both on the flat and over jumps. Kamsin began his stud alongside his sire at his home Gestüt Karlshof, but later moved to France, where he sired the Grand Steeple winner On The Go. He has now moved on to Ireland and he will stand from 2021 at Annshoon Stud in Co. Kilkenny for a very reasonable fee of 3,500 euros. Clearly he will be covering N.H. mares and it is clear from his pedigree that his progeny will show their best form on soft or heavy ground.

That is also of course true of Samum, one of the best sons of Monsun; Monsun died in 2012 and Samum in 2018, but they still have runners and Samum´s son Notebook, bred by Gestüt am Schlossgarten, was an easy Group Two winner at Naas a fortnight ago; he is now a leading hope for Cheltenham 2021 for owner Gigginstown House and trainer Henry de Bromhead. As for Monsun, his influence is ever-present. One we did not mention yet is his son Vadamos, bred by Andreas Putsch´s Haras de Saint Pair, who we remember winning the Group Two Oettingen-Rennen in 2015. Trainer André Fabre, always one of Monsun´s greatest fans, was there to saddle him personally and was effusive in his praise. Vadamos went on to win the following year´s Group One Prix du Moulin de Longchamp (actually run that year in Chantilly), and was later retired to stud at Rich Hill Stud in New Zealand, from where he shuttles to Tally Ho Stud in Ireland for the European season. Vadamos´ first European crop are currently 2yo´s and have done extremely well, with 13 individual winners (including this week). It is sometimes forgotten that Monsun, although best known as a sure of stayers (Ascot Gold Cup, Melbourne Cup etc) has also sired many Group One winning milers, e.g. Maxios and Manduro as well as Vadamos, who all showed plenty of speed and are doing well as sires.

Monsun was by German triple crown winner Königsstuhl and is out of a mare by Surumu, two of the most influential German stallions of the postwar era. He is totally free of Northern Dancer, and this is undoubtedly one of the reasons for his huge success at stud, as he was used by many top international breeders as an outcross sire for their Northern Dancer line mares. The reverse cross is also true of course. The most successful current stallions in Germany are Adlerflug at Schlenderhan and Soldier Hollow at Auenquelle. Both of them them are by the Northern Dancer line stallion In The Wings (Sadlers´ Wells), who won the Coronation Cup, Grand Prix de saint Cloud and Breeders´ Cup Turf as a 4yo in 1990 for owner-breeder Sheikh Mohammed and trainer André  Fabre. Both of them have done especially well with mares by Monsun or from well-established German families.

Soldier Hollow has no German elements in his pedigree as he was bred in England by Car Colston Stud and bought as a yearling by Helmut von Finck (Gestüt Park Wiedingen). However Adlerflug is a representative of the celebrated Schlenderhan “A” family; his second dam Alya (Lombard) was an own sister to Allegretta, arguably the most successful broodmare in the world of the past 50 years and the dam of Arc winner Urban Sea, herself dam of supersires Galileo and Sea The Stars among others. As it happens none of Adlerflug´s top performers this year, In Swoop, winner of the German Derby and runner-up in the Arc, Torquator Tasso, runner-up in the German Derby and winner of the Grosser Preis von Baden, and Dicaprio, beaten in a photo-finish in the latter-race, have Monsun in their pedigree. But In Swoop is certainly also a member of a top Schlenderhan family, and Soldier Hollow´s 2012 German Derby winning son Pastorius was out of a Monsun mare and both of them have sired plenty of black type performers as well.

Recent Grosser Preis von Bayern winner Sunny Queen is another case in point. She is by Camelot (from the Northern Dancer sire line) out of a mare from another celebrated Schlenderhan family, that of Schwarzgold. We could also point to last year´s Arc winner Waldgeist, by Galileo out of a Monsun mare from the equally celebrated Ravensberg “W” family. Many leading German breeders have entered into foal sharing agreements with the major stallion ownwers such as Coolmore and Darley and this has also often worked out to be very profitable. Hoppegarten boss Gerhard Schöningh had a similar arrangement with Darley when he sent his mare Baisse (High Chaparral) to be covered by Darley´s Dubawi last year, and the resulting foal was sold last week at Tattersalls for 600,000 guineas.

With no more valuable races to be run this year, it is clear that Adlerflug will be crowned champion sire by a considerable margin And roughly 890,000 euros in domestic winnings. Soldier Hollow is a clear runner-up with about 650,000 euros, followed by the consistent veteran Areion (Big Shuffle) with 450,000 euros and Sea The Stars (Cape Cross) with 350,000, almost entirely due to his Preis der Diana-winning daughter Miss Yoda. These are relatively small sums – Soldier Hollow was champion last year with well over a million, but this because of the general reduction in prize-money in 2020 as a result of the covit-19 pamdemic. However it is clear that in Adlerflug and Soldier Hollow Germany has two thoroughbred stallions of top international standard.

At the time of writing it is not clear who will be champion breeder in Germany for 2020, as Stiftung Gestüt Fährhof has currently only a tiny lead over Stall Ullmann (In Swoop), with Etzean (Miss Yoda) also close up. Gestüt Auenquelle is leading owner, thanks mainly to the 3yo´s Torquator Tasso, not a homebred, and the filly Virginia Joy (Soldier Hollow), who is a homebred but was sold at the Arc sale for 975,000 euros. Sunny Queen has also been sold, for a reported half million euros, to South African-owned Cayton Park Stud, and last Saturday last year´s leading filly Durance (Champs Elysees) was sold for 750,000 euros at the Arqana Breeding Stock Sale. These are good prices and one can hardly blame the owners for accepting them, but in the long run the sale of all the top German fillies can only lead to a dilution in the quality of German bloodstock. However at the moment the breeding industry, despite all the problems of 2020, is still in a reasonably healthy state, especially when one compares its tiny size: less than 800 live foals reported this year as against 8,542 in Ireland (down from a high of 12,000 in 2007!) and 4,236 in the U.K. We can certainly still claim that German breeding is punching well above its weight, as is documented by In Swoop, by a German stallion from a well-established German family, who is officially rated the best turf 3yo in the world over the classic distance.

David Conolly-Smith