The English page - Season statistics

There was racing at Mülheim last Saturday on very heavy ground and the card included the last valuable (relatively speaking) race of the season, a BBAG sales race for 3yo´s over 2000 metres. There was a big field with 15 runners and, as so often in such races, some quite considerable weight differences, with the three contestants on top weight (which depended on prize-money won) giving away up to 7 kilos. Surprisingly, one of them won, Atze (Amaron), trained in Hoppegarten by Roland Dzubasz, who was always well placed, improved his position on the turn into the straight where he soon led and he kept on well under Sibylle Vogt to score by half a length from American Fly (Maxios), who was in receipt of five kilos, with the filly Miss Marbel (Adlerflug), getting six kilos, 2½ lengths further back in third. The field was well strung out, with the two other top weights well back.

This was undeniably a good performance with the big weight and under these conditions, but one should not go overboard as regards the form, as American Fly is a consistent handicapper at a relatively low level, while Miss Marbel came into the race having won her two previous starts in modest company. However it was a good result for connections and trainer Dzubasz deserves a compliment for targeting –and winning - such a valuable event. Atze had previously won a similar event at Halle, beating several of these opponents, but was much worse off at the weights this time. His official rating has gone up to GAG 73.5, still a long way short of black type level.

Atze only ran once (unplaced) at two but has shown continual improvement this season. This was his fifth win in ten starts and he has collected almost 60,000 euros for his Berlin owner Peter Schrade. He was bred by Gestüt Etzean´s Ralf Kredel, was led out unsold at 15,000 euros at the BBAG Yearling Sale in 2019, put into training with Dzubasz at Hoppegarten and sold privately to Peter Schrade. His sire, the top miler Amaron (by Shamardal) stands at Etzean and his dam Altstadt (by another smart miler in Alkalde) only ran once, showing little. However she was a daughter of the very smart Alte Zeit (by the influential Surumu), who won both German fillies´ classics in 1988 and also finished runner-up to the colts in the German Derby. Atze is clearly very game and obviously stays 2000 metres well enough; it will be interesting to see if he can continue his improvement next year.

None of the other seven races at Mülheim was worth more than 3250 euros to the winner, and neither will any race at the remaining four fixtures this year, three of them, including this Sunday, at Dortmund´s sand track, and one more at Mülheim on Boxing Day (weather permitting). It is therefore clear that the German statistics for the 2021 season are already set in stone, at least as far as prize-money is concerned.

However the Germans decide their trainers´ champion, illogically in the opinion of this writer, by the number of races won rather than by prize-money and in this respect Cologne trainer Peter Schiergen is highly likely to be champion. He currently leads the table with 59 races won, 5 more than his nearest pursuer Markus Klug, which will probably suffice. Schiergen´s runners also collected almost a million euros in prize-money. And by this measure he is behind fellow Cologne trainer Henk Grewe, whose 48 winners, including Sisfahan in the most valuable race of the German season, the Deutsches Derby, earned over 1.3 million euros. The second most valuable race of the season is the Preis der Diana (German Oaks), won this year by Gestüt Etzean´s homebred Palmas, trained by Andreas Wöhler. In terms of winners, Wöhler with 34 is behind Roland Dzubasz (37), but in prize-money terms he is in fourth place.

These statistics refer to domestic results only. If foreign races are included, the picture looks a lot different. Waldemar Hickst, another Cologne trainer, for example had 24 winners in Germany and is in 11^th place with 528,000 euros in prize-money; he was extremely successful abroad with numerous winners in France and Italy, including at black type level. Even more glaring is the case of Marcel Weiss, who trains in Mülheim; he had 18 winners in Germany, which puts him in 14^th place. He trained Torquator Tasso, the winner of the Grosser Preis von Baden, still Germany´s most prestigious event, who collected exactly 100,000 euros; however that sum is, with all due respect, peanuts compared to the amount he won in his next race, the Prix de l´Arc de Triomphe, worth over 2.8 million euros to the winner. If this sum counted for the German statistics, they would look completely different, including the tables for leading owners and breeders.

As it is, Darius Racing, owner (with a partner) of Derby winner Sisfahan, will go down as the leading German owner in 2021, followed by Etzean, owner of Diana winner Palmas. Gestüt Auenquelle, the owner of Torquator Tasso. Is in third place by domestic winnings, followed by Gestüt Brümmerhof, who just pip Kirsten Rausing for fourth place. But while Brümmerhof had the winners of 17 races in Germany (including the 1,000 Guineas winner Novemba), Miss Rausing had just the one winner, the wonderful Alpinista (Frankel), who was sent over to Germany three times by trainer Sir Mark Prescott and returned to Newmarket with three Group One victories to her credit, the Grosser Preis von Berlin and also von Bayern, and also the Preis von Europa. Amazingly these were the same three races as those won in 2004 by her grandam Albanova, who was also owned and bred by Kirsten Rausing and trained by Sir Mark. It is rather sad to note that these three Group One races brought her owner 265,000 euros in total, less than 10% of the amount won by Torquator Tasso at Longchamp.

Derby winner Sisfahan was bred in France by Guy Pariente, and so also does not count for the German breeders´ table, which is therefore headed by Gestüt Etzean. They are followed by Brümmerhof, Röttgen, Karlshof and Hof Ittlingen. Torquator Tasso himself was bred by Dutchman Paul H. Vandeberg, but his French winnings do not count here.

As far as the jockeys´ table goes, this was a one-man-show all through the season, and Bauyrzhan Murzabayev duly collected his third successive championship with 110 winners, almost double the number of his nearest pursuer Andrasch Starke. They are followed by young Leon Wolff (45), and Arc winning jockey Rene Piecheluk on 42. By any standards Kazakhstan–born Murzabayev is an outstandingly good jockey; his main drawback is that he speaks very little English, so that his chances of an international career are not brilliant. He is now first jockey for Peter Schiergen and second jockey there is Sibylle Vogt, by far the most successful female jockey in Germany, so that it is an extremely successful team and can almost certainly expect further success in 2022.

As mentioned here last week, Adlerflug – who tragically died this year- was leading sire for the second season running, even allowing for the fact that the victory of his best son Torquator Tasso in the Arc does not count for these domestic statistics. However one looks at it, the German Arc success was undoubtedly the high point of 2021 from the German point of view, even if it is not reflected in the statistics.

David Conolly-Smith