The English page - Excellent racing at Baden-Baden

Last week´s Baden-Baden meeting saw some excellent racing. The extremely hot weather, especially at the weekend, was not ideal, and kept attendance and betting turnover down. However the racing surface was in very good condition and praised by jockeys and trainers as just about the best they had ever encountered at this racecourse.

This can also be seen by the result of the top race of the meeting, the Group Two Grosser Preis der Badischen Wirtschaft over eleven furlongs, which resulted in an exciting finish between Guignol (Cape Cross), last year´s Grosser Preis von Bayern winner, and Iquitos (Adlerflug), who had not only won this race last year but had also taken the big race at the summer meeting, the Grosser Preis von Baden, and was subsequently  Horse of the Year and German Racing Champions League winner for 2017.

Guignol won the Munich race last year by making all the running, while Iquitos is well-known as a hold-up horse, so it was no surprise to Guignol, under Filip Minarik, set off in front, with Iquitos settled by new jockey Andrasch Starke settled in last. The order remained virtually unchanged into the straight, with Guignol still travelling well within himself in front and his rival beginning to creep closer. Starke launched Iquitos´ challenge at the furlong marker, at which point it was clear that the finish would only involve these two, and Guignol responded well. Iquitos closed to within a neck, but Minarik had kept a bit up his sleeve and held on by that margin, with the rest, headed by Wai Key Star (Soldier Hollow),four lengths and more further back.

It was an excellent performance by both the principals, especially as they were conceding weight all round, and both were also extremely well ridden. The fact that they would both have preferred softer going is evidence that the groundsman had done a really good job in the prevailing heatwave.

Guignol is out of the smart Guadalupe, runner-up in the Yorkshire Oaks, and a member of Stall Ullmann´s currently best family, while Iquitos comes from an old-established family of Gestüt Evershorst and was bred by 94-year-old Dr. Erika Buhmann, the widow of the longtime owner/manager of the stud.

Both Guignol and Iquitos proved by this result that they are genuine Group One performers and both are currently rated 118 and are the top-rated horses in Germany. They are likely to meet again this season as both will be aimed at the same races, although Iquitos´ long-term target is the Prix de l´Arc de Triomphe, in which Guignol has not been entered. As Iquitos was having his first race here since finishing a respectable seventh in last year`s Japan Cup, his performance  was especially praiseworthy, and if he continues to show the same progress last year he is no forlorn hope for the Paris race.

Trainer Jean-Pierre Carvalho and Filip Minarik also combined to win the other Group Two race at the meeting, the Badener Meile, with Gestüt Höny-Hof´s homebred Palace Prince (Areion), who won a shade comfortably by a length from the unlucky Degas (Exceed and Excel), runner-up for the umpteenth time in a group race. Palace Prince was successfully brought back in distance here – indeed as a three-year-old he had been runner-up in the Deutsches Derby.

The other main races at Baden-Baden were the Silberne Peitsche (Silver Whip) over six furlongs on Saturday and the Ittlingen Derby-Trial over ten on Sunday, and both were won by potential stars. In the former event it was Gestüt Brümmerhof´s homebred Artistica (Areion), who followed up her listed win at Nottingham with a convincing victory here. It is unusual here for a three-year-old filly to beat her elders in May, especially over sprint distances, and Artistica, who is trained at Hanover by Dominik Moser and ridden by Wladimir Panov, must now be regarded as Germany´s best hope of keeping the Goldene Peitsche at the summer meeting at home.

The Derby Trial was won easily enough by the favourite Langtang (Campanologist), who is owned by the successful partnership of breeder Stiftung Gestüt Fährhof and football star Klaus Allofs, trained by Andreas Wöhler and was ridden with great confidence by stable jockey Eduardo Pedroza. Langtang won last year´s Preis des Winterfavoriten as the successor to Wöhler´s Isfahan, who went on to win the Deutsches Derby, and Langtang is now the logical favourite for that race, to be run at Hamburg on July 2^nd. However it should be noted that Wöhler has an embarrassment of riches in the three-year-old department and has four more horses prominent in early betting on the Derby.

Wöhler also the likely favourite for this weekend´s big race, the Group Two Diana-Trial at Hoppegarten. This is Jaber Abdullah´s Shy Angel (Zamindar), who has run two good races at the Berlin track this season. The race is now sponsored by the owner of Soldier Hollow, currently Germany´s most successful stallion, and appropriately enough, four of the eight runners are by Soldier Hollow, the best of whom could be Gestüt Röttgen´s homebred Well Spoken, who however has not run since winning last October´s Preis der Winterkönigin.

David Conolly-Smith