Breeding & Racing in Germany

We are at the end of October and nearing the end of the German racing season. Germany has no N.H. season, in fact practically no jumps races at all, and many leading racecourses have already shut up shop for 2021, including Cologne, Düsseldorf and last Sunday Hanover, which signed off for the year with a strong card which included three black type races.

There had been a major racing conference the previous day in Hanover and many of the makers and shakers in the German racing and breeding industries were present, while most of the races were sponsored by breeders and racing organisations. Main event was the Group Three Grosser Preis des Gestüts Auenquelle und Torquator Tasso-Herbst Stuten Preis for fillies and mares over 2200 metres. The owners of the Arc winner have supported several races since their big win and have been very generous to various racecourses.

Triumph and tragedy are never far apart, in racing as in many other walks of life, and we saw this again at Cologne last Sunday when Sea Bay (New Bay) won the Preis des WInterfavoriten in brilliant style, scoring by nine lengths after taking the lead early in the straight and leaving strong opposition for dead. This was a most impressive performance, the best by a German-trained 2yo for many years and earned him as GAG rating of 96 (=international 112), extremely high for a German juvenile and equaling the highest rating for this age group.

Sir Mark Prescott´s 4yo filly Alpinista, as expected, proved too strong for her German rivals in last Sunday´s Group One Preis von Europa at Cologne, leading one and a half furlongs out and quickly asserting to win by 1 ½ lengths from the CD specialist Nerium (Camelot) with the German Derby winner Sisfahan (Isfahan) running on late to go third. The first half mile was run at a crawl with none of the jockeys wanting to make the running until Nerium went on and injected some pace into the race. He led by 4 lengths coming into the straight, but Luke Morris was aware of the situation, soon had Kirsten Rausing´s grey into position and the filly lengthened in really good style to cut down the leader and soon put the race to bed.

Last week´s “Grosse Woche” (= “great week”) at Baden-Baden must be regarded as a great success. It was the first meeting at the Iffezheim racecourse under the new management team Baden Galopp, and, apart from a few minor hitches and teething problems, all went well and the final three days of the meeting were run in glorious late summer weather, also a huge positive so even the weather played its part. The only big problem was when the first race on Saturday had to be voided after a false start, but that is hardly the fault of the race club. The feedback has been overwhelmingly positive: “pure joy” according to Deutscher Galopp president Michael Vesper, and “all´s well that ends well” according to senior handicapper Harald Siemen´s weekly blog.

Last week´s racing in Germany was very low key and there was not a single black type race at the three meetings (Hanover, Mülheim and Krefeld); the most valuable event was the BBAG sales race for 3yo´s over 1750 metres at Hanover. These races are difficult to evaluate as the conditions often result in considerable weight differences, so it was no real surprise that last Sunday´s winner, aptly named The Conqueror (The Gurkha) was one of the lighter weights. This is no way meant to be negative, as he won nicely by two lengths and never looked in serious danger of defeat after taking the lead early in the straight. It was also a fine piece of race planning by trainer Andreas Wöhler, who owns the colt and also bred him (together with his wife Susi).