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The English page: The first German group race of the new season

Autor: 

David Conolly-Smith

TurfTimes: 

Ausgabe 412 vom Donnerstag, 07.04.2016

The first German group race of the new season will be run at Düsseldorf this Sunday. This is the XTIP Frühjahrs-Meile (“Spring Mile”), which will be followed by a group race just about every Sunday from now until mid-November, with occasionally some midweek pattern races during the big week-long meetings at Baden-Baden and Hamburg.

Sunday´s field of seven has some familiar faces, including Stall Ullmann´s Guiliano (Tertullian), runner-up here last year. He went on to win the Grosser Dallmayr-Preis, but must shoulder a hefty penalty for that Group One success. Gestüt Winterhauch´s Lucky Lion (High Chaparral) won that same Munich event in 2014, but is no longer burdened with a penalty. In fact as he failed to win last year he now receives four kilos from Guiliano, and he looks the one to beat at these weights. In addition Lucky Lion´s owner and trainer Andreas Löwe have won this race for the past two years, and a hat-trick is certainly a possibility. Lucky Lion has also been entered for the Champions Mile in Hong Kong on May 1st; he is not on the list of early acceptances published this week, but could well still get into the field if anybody drops out, but he would have to run well at Düsseldorf first.

Lucky Lion will be partnered on Sunday by Adrie de Vries, just returned from almost half a year in Qatar, while Andrasch Starke, who has been riding with great success in Japan for the past two months, is another welcome face. He partners Stall Nizza´s Drummer (Duke of Marmalade), while Mario Hofer saddles two runners, both owned by Cologne racecourse president Eckhard Sauren – Nordico (Medicean) and Diplomat (Teofilo).The line-up is completed by Molly le Clou (Doyen) and the only filly in the field Weltmacht (Mount Nelson).

The main supporting feature at Düsseldorf is a listed race for three-year-olds over eleven furlongs, an early Derby trial. Six declared here, with two fillies A Raving Beauty (Mastercraftsman) and Blumenfee (Soldier Hollow) taking on the boys. The most interesting runner could be Zirconic Star (Samum) who might have a fitness advantage, as he has already won two maidens this year – one on the all-weather and one on turf (this is possible under German rules). Zirconic Star stays really well- his grand-dam won the Prix du Cadran – so any weakness from the others will be punished, but Nimrod (High Chaparral) looks very interesting for Jürgen Imm´s Stall Nizza. He is a half-brother to last season´s top German filly and Horse of the Year Nightflower (Dylan Thomas).

Andreas Wöhler, who seems potentially to have the best bunch of classic prospects in his yard, saddles two here: A Raving Beauty, with stable jockey Eddie Pedroza on board, and Jaber Abdullah´s homebred Light of Air (Youmzain), who has a fascinating pedigree; his fifth dam is the Queen´s celebrated Height of Fashion (Bustino), so this is the family of such champions as Nashwan and Deep Impact. Light of Air won his only start last year in promising style and could be anything. A Raving Beauty Is also very well-bred and her second dam is a half-sister to multiple group winner Alianthus (Hernando), one of Germany´s best milers of recent years. Despite the small field this could be a very informative race and we could well see another shake-up in the early betting on the Deutsches Derby.

We saw another interesting race for three-year-olds last Sunday at Mülheim. All nine declared to run (one later withdrawn) are entered in the Deutsches Derby, and Wöhler´s Cashman (Soldier of Fortune) made all the running to win easily. He had been unplaced on his only start last year, but certainly looked useful here and clearly stays well. He was bred by Hans Wirth (Stall Turffighter), who for a number of years leased the thoroughbred half of historic Gestüt Graditz,  but comes from an international family which has done particularly well for the Niarchos Family. The going was very soft (as it probably will be again on Sunday), so the two placed horses Alsterprinz and Noble House should also be followed; they are both by Lando, whose progeny almost always prefer good ground. The other three-year-old race on the card was won very easily by Schäng (Contat), who has – with all due respect – an undistinguished pedigree. We are in any case not likely to see much of him in Germany; his trainer, Pavel Vovcenko, who also trained the sire, stated that he will be mainly campaigned in France, as there are so few opportunities for sprinters (this race was over six furlongs) in Germany. 

David Conolly-Smith

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