The English page - More success for German breeding (continued)

The N.H. season is in full swing in the U.K. and Ireland, and also to a lesser extent in France and Italy, and every day brings reports of more winners by German-bred sires. Many of these winners are by the usual suspects such as Getaway, Shirocco and Schiaparelli, all of whom are sons of Monsun and have had N.H. winners this week. Getaway won the Grosser Preis von Baden and the other two the German Derby, all Group One events.

Now we shall look at two of Monsun´s –with all due respect - lesser lights. These two never won a Group One but were both placed several times at this level and were Group Two winners and both of them had a graded winner over jumps this week. We are referring to Noroit, who was trained by Wolfgang Figge to win a Group Two at the sadly now closed racecourse at Frankfurt in 2001, and Lauro, who scored at this level in Canada in 2007 for Andreas Wöhler.

Funambule Sivola (Noroit) won last Saturday´s Game Spirit Chase at Newbury and could go next for the Champion Chase at Cheltenham. Noroit, who died in 2019, spent most of his stud career at Gilles Trapenard´s Haras de Sivola in Lalizolle near Vichy, and most his French-bred progeny have the name Sivola in various combinations in their names. He is also sire of Fantastic Sivola, winner of the Prix Montgomery at Auteuil in late 2020. but Funambule Sivola, who as a 7yo is relatively young for a top steeplechaser, could well turn out to be Noroit´s best performer yet.

Meanwhile at Italy s big N.H. meeting in Pisa, Illico Clermont (Lauro) was an easy winner of a Grade Three steeplechase for 4yo´s. Lauro was bred by Gestüt Ittlingen and was closely related to their champion racehorse and successful sire Lando. Lauro started off in France but moved to the Hayes Stud in Co. Meath in 2018 and immediately hit the headlines when his 5yo son Diauro, an Irish point-to-point winner, was sold for 410,000 guineas at Tattersalls.

If there is one stallion who can compete with Monsun as a sire of N.H. sires, it has to be Sadler´s Wells. That son of the great Northern Dancer died at the age of 30 in 2011, a year before Monsun, but his descendant are still going strong. In the current list of leading N.H. sires in GB/IRE he has no fewer than seven of his sons in the top 20. Very few German owners could afford him (for one exception see below), but several sons of Sadler´ s Wells started their stud careers in Germany, although most have moved on.

The most successful was Sholokhov, who stood for several years at Gestüt Etzean, and during his time there sired the Cheltenham Gold Cup winner Don Cossack as well as German championesse Night Magic. whose own brother Night Wish is now also doing well as a N.H. sire as mentioned here last week; they are of course out of a Monsun mare. Since returning to Ireland Sholokhov has continued to sire top class performers over jumps and has excellent chances of a Cheltenham Grade One double next month with Shishkin and Bob Olinger.

Another Group One winning son of Sadler´s Wells who started his stud career in Germany was Black Sam Bellamy at Fährhof; his best product during his time there from 2004 to 2008 was multiple Group One winner Earl of Tinsdal, but since he was later sent to Shade Oak Stud in Shropshire he has covered almost exclusively N.H. mares and is now having lots of winners in this sphere. He is an own brother to Galileo so his success as a sire comes as no surprise. His best winners over jumps include Cheltenham specialist The Giant Bolster, twice placed in the Gold Cup, and Stayers Hurdle winner Sam Spinner.

Doyen, winner of the 2004 King George, is another Sadler´s Wells son to start his stallion career in Germany, in this case at Gestüt Auenquelle, but has flourished as a N.H. sire since moving to the Sunnyhill Stud in Co. Kildare and currently has lots of runners and plenty of winners over jumps.

The exception, mentioned above, to sons of Sadler´s Wells who were actually trained in Germany, was Saddex, owned by Stall Avena and trained by Peter Rau. He was extremely consistent as a racehorse, placing in many top races and winning Group One races in Germany and Italy. He began his stud career at Gestüt Westerberg but has really found his métier as a N.H. sire in Ireland, where he now stands at Peter Maher´s Blackrath Stud in Co. Kildare. He started well there with Sancta Simona (out of a Monsun mare) who was runner-up to German-bred Aramon (Monsun!) in a Grade One hurdle race at Leopardstown at Christmas 2018, while Blue Sari was runner-up in Cheltenham´s Champion Bumper the same season. Blue Sari has now been sent chasing  and is due to run at Gowran Park this Saturday. He is likely to start favourite there, but however he runs, Saddex has plenty to look forward this spring, with his son Editeur du Gite entered in the Champion Chase and another son Eklat de Rire entered in the Grand National.

That Gowran Park fixture looks like being very interesting for followers of German-bred runners in N.H. events, as Fährhof-bred Quilixios (Maxios), Darasso (König Turf), Teahupoo (Masked Marvel), Saldier (Soldier Hollow) and The Tide Turns (Sea The Moon) all declared to run in the main event, the Grad Three Red Mills Trial Hurdle. We also have German (or German-bred) runners this weekend in the big races at Cagnes sur Mer and St. Moritz so we are very hopeful of being to report on more winners for German bloodstock in this column next week.

David Conolly-Smith