The English page - Germany's top ten furlong race

Racing has been at a low level for the past ten days in Germany, with the attractive holiday resort of Bad Harzburg holding centre stage; they have mainly handicaps and maiden races there and no black type events (except for one listed race over hurdles run after these lines are written).  However we did have an interesting listed sprint race at Hoppegarten on Wednesday evening.  This was run over the straight five furlongs of the Berlin track and ended with a complete eclipse of the favourites. Four of the 2017 field reappeared, but while Daring Match (Call me Big) had won the race in both 2016 and 2017 and is generally regarded as Germany´s top performer over this specialist distance, he made little show this time and could only finish fifth behind the four-year-old filly Artistica (Areion), who held on from the fast-finishing Austrian-trained Pretorian (Sakhee´s Secret), who was only sixth last year. The favourite Albertville, a three-year-old filly by So You Think was more than three lengths back in third, and the well-fancied Scapina (Tai Chi), a listed winner over six furlongs earlier this season, last of the eight runners.

The winner, a Gestüt Brümmerhof homebred paid almost 16-1. She had been unplaced on her six previous outings but had started her three-year-old season in great form, winning her first three starts of 2017, including a listed race at Nottingham and then the Group Three Silberne Peitsche at Baden-Baden´s Spring Meeting.-The Goldene Peitsche at the big meeting there at the end of August is likely to be her next target. She is from one of Brümmerhof´s most successful families and is closely related to Group Two winner Acambaro (Goofalik), also runner-up in the 1999 Deutsches Derby, and Group Three winners Addicted (Diktat), Abbadjinn (Big Shuffle) and Abbashiva (Tiger Hill). Her yearling half-sister by Adlerflug is catalogued as no. 210 in the BBAG Yearling Sale.

However by far the most important race of the week will be run on Sunday at Munich. The Group One Grosser Dallmayr-Preis is Germany´s best ten furlong race and has attracted a strong field with two supplementary entries. This race usually features a strong foreign challenge – Andre Fabre won in 2016, and there have been three U.K.-trained winners in the past ten years. This time we have Godolphin s Benbatl (Dubawi), trained by Saeed bin Suroor, who won the race in 2001 with Kutub, and Ed Walker´s supplemented Stormy Antarctic (Stormy Atlantic), who will be partnered by jockey-of-the-moment James Doyle.

In theory Benbatl has to win; he has easily the highest rating in the field and his Meydan performances, especially his easy victory in the Dubai Turf with Munich jockey Oisin Murphy aboard, are clearly the best form in the race. However he has only run once since, when finishing down the field in the Queen Anne Stakes at Royal Ascot over an inadequate distance. This trip should be ideal, although Stormy Antarctic could be a real threat, especially in view of his trainer´s record in Germany. Ed Walker has only ever had two runners here, and they both won, including Stormy Antarctic himself, who won the Badener Meile at the end of May. He has not run since and has never yet run beyond a mile, so there could be a slight question mark here.

The two Brits will in any case have to be at their best to defeat Iquitos (Adlerflug), who is clearly the best of the German-trained runners. This admirable six-year-old won the race last year, defeating Godolphin´s Best Solution easily enough, form which now reads pretty well. A small horse, he is at his best when held up off a strong pace, which he is likely to get here, and is also best on left-handed tracks such as Munich. Although it is high summer here, it has not been quite as hot or as dry as in many other parts of Europe and the going should be perfect.

Two interesting contenders are the four-year-olds Colomano (Cacique) and Walsingham (Campanologist), who have both been in good form this season without actually winning. They have met three times already in 2018 and there is little between them; these races were all over twelve furlong, but the drop to ten should trouble neither of them, indeed could be to their advantage. Walsingham, who was also supplemented, will be saddled by Peter Schiergen, the most successful trainer in this race in recent years, while Colomano comes from the all-conquering stable of Markus Klug. Both must be respected, as must Va Bank (Archipenko), runner-up to Stormy Antarctic in the Badener Meile.

Local trainer Sarah Steinberg is in great form and she saddles two runners, Wai Key Star (Soldier Hollow) and Clearly (Invincible Spirit), but both would need to show significant improvement to figure in this company, and that is even more the case for Marian Falk Weissmeier´s two runners Matchwinner (Sternkönig) and Rapido (Rock of Gibraltar). This is the first top level race of the German season in which three-year-olds can take on their elders; unfortunately there is no member of the classic crop in this line-up, but it is still a strong field with several possible outcomes.

David Conolly-Smith