The English page: Racing & Breeding in Germany 17

The Grosser Dallmayr-Preis run last Sunday over ten furlongs at Munich, is by far Germany's top middle distance race of the season and is in fact the only German Group One run over less than eleven furlongs. It has been won by many champion racehorses over the years, but whether the latest winner, Stall Ullmann's Guiliani (Tertullian) will belong in this category remains to be seen. It was rather a messy race and started badly when the British contestant, Ralph Beckett´s Air Pilot, who had been supplemented, had to be withdrawn after injuring himself in the stalls. Fortunately the injury was not as bad as at first feared, and the gelding is now back home in Hampshire and, according to Beckett, “feeling very sorry for himself.” 

The complete race video, photos and full result here (under "Renndetails"/Guiliani/No. 3: Klick!

This left the race without its only foreign runner, resulted in a large number of bets having to be cancelled, and also caused problems for the other jockeys, as it was assumed that Air Pilot would make the running. The filly Wunder certainly did not expect to lead, but she jumped best of all, was quickly in pole position, and led until the distance. At this stage last year´s winner Lucky Lion looked the likeliest winner, but he appeared somewhat reluctant to go through with his effort, and it was Guiliani, trained by Jean-Pierre Carvalho and ridden byFilip Minarik, who came through strongly in the final furlong to win by half a length from the strong-finishing Ajalo (King´s Best), the only three-year-old in the field, with Wunder just holding on for third ahead of Lucky Lion.

This was a career-best effort by Guiliani, and in fact it was his first ever group victory. He had won on his debut over ten furlongs, but has been mainly campaigned since over a mile. However trainer Carvalho, who took over the Ullmann/ Schlenderhan horses at the beginning of last year, reported that he had always regarded him as a middle distance performer. Where he goes next is not quite clear, but he has been entered in the Irish Champion, so that is certainly a possibility. He has been given a rating of 113 – below par for a Group One winner- but he is relatively lightly-raced and further improvement can be expected. The same goes for the placed horses, and in fact the first three were the three least exposed runners, so that the race rating could well be revised upward later.

Guiliani is an Ullmann homebred and is by Tertullian out of the Monsun mare Guadalupe, one of the best European fillies in 2002 when she won the Italian Oaks (in those days a much better race than it is now), was runner-up in the Yorkshire Oaks, third in the German version and fourth in the Vermeille. The family has produced many top-class winners for the Ullmann family, including Group One winner Getaway, an own sister to Guadalupe. Tertullian was a Schlenderhan-bred who was best at seven furlongs, but his progeny usually get middle distances well enough. He is still owned by Schlenderhan, but stands at nearby Erftmühle, and is currently champion sire in Germany with good prospects of following up in 2015. He has had German Guineas winners and also Derby-placed runners, but surprisingly this was his first Group One winner. He is by Miswaki out of a daughter of Allegretta, which makes him a three parts brother to Arc winner Urban Sea, dam of Galileo and Sea The Stars. His fee at Erftmühle this year was 5,000 euros, surely a bargain under the circumstances, and yet he covered only 35 mares in 2015 and even fewer last year.

Munich staged its best card in ages, and the two listed races on the undercard are also worth a mention. Fly First (Big Shuffle) won the seven furlongs race with an astonishing burst of speed, having been last with a furlong still to run. He is trained by Ferdinand Leve for his wife Janet Leve-Ostermann, and the trainer is now unsure whether to go up to a mile with him or down to six furlongs. The Goldene Peitsche over the shorter trip must surely be a possibility. An hour later, Newsells Park´s Waldnah (New Approach) put up arguably an ever better performance when making all the running to take the fillies´ and mares´ race over eleven furlongs. She is a member of the famous Waldrun “W” family and looks well capable of winning at group race level. She was trained previously by John Gosden but has shown tremendous improvement since being switched this year to Andreas Wöhler. She is a half-sister to St. Leger winner Masked Marvel and also closely related to German Derby winner Waldpark.

The action moves back to the Rhine this weekend and to Sunday's 157. Henkel-Preis der Diana (German Oaks) at Düsseldorf. Thirteen fillies have been declared, with again just one foreign runner, also supplemented. This is Desiree Clary (Sholokhov), now trained by Pascal Bary, but German-bred and the form choice on her fourth place in the Prix de Diane, where Nightflower (Dylan Thomas) finished almost two lengths behind her. She also beat Nightflower earlier in the season, but it is by no means impossible that the latter could reverse the form, especially in view of the excellent form of trainer Peter Schiergen and jockey Andrasch Starke. The two main dangers are probably another Schiergen runner Lovelyn (Tiger Hill), winner of the Italian Oaks and the mount of Frankie Dettori, and Gestüt Röttgen's Anna Katharina (Kallisto), who is ideally drawn for a front-runner.