Breeding & Racing in Germany

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.

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.

The weather played an important role in last week´s “Grosse Woche” at Baden-Baden, as always the best meeting of the year in Germany. The first five days of the meeting were staged in a blistering heatwave, while it rained heavily on the final day which featured the Group One Grosser Preis von Baden. The track had been well watered during the week – too well, in the opinion of many trainers and jockeys- so that the going on Sunday was far from ideal. The insistence of the main German racecourses to run their top race of the meeting on the final day, Hamburg´s Derby is the other obvious example, means that the big race is always almost run on bad ground.

The BBAG Yearling Sale, which takes place next Friday at the sales complex next door to the racecourse at Iffezheim , is by far the most important thoroughbred sale in Germany and now attracts owners, trainers, agents and other buyers from all over the world. This year´s catalogue is arguably the strongest ever and the encouraging results from Deauville last week and from Goffs this week suggest that the sale will be a success. MD Carola Ortlieb reports that “the mood is very positive at present and we expect a strong sale; we have buyers coming from the USA, from Australia (including new people  who intend to have horses in training in Germany), Hong Kong and all the usual suspects from the U.K., Ireland, France  and Italy. The large number of promising younger stallions represented is a big advantage over previous years. ”

Last Sunday´s Grosser Dallmayr-Preis at Munich, Germany´s most important race over the distance of ten furlongs ended with the success of French-trained Elliptique (New Approach), supplemented by André Fabre and running in the colours of the Rothschild family with Frankie Dettori in the saddle. It was a shrewd move by the trainer, who had identified this race as a potential target for the five-year-old, who had never before run in a Group One. He also had the right jockey on board in Dettori, who know all about riding big-race winners and delighted the crowd with his jump on dismounting in the winners enclosure. “André called me and told me to ride a waiting race, so that is what I did,” he said afterwards.