The English page - Start of the Season

The German turf season got off to a good start last Sunday at Düsseldorf, when 14,360 racegoers turned up to enjoy some nice weather and a good card. The main event, the listed Grand Prix Aufgalopp over 2100 metres went to Mighty Mouse (King´s Best), who finished strongly from the rear to score by half a length and the same from Salve Venezia (Areion) and San Salvador (Lord of England). This was a popular win for a small stable.

Mighty Mouse, very lightly raced for a nine-year-old – this was only his 22^nd start- has obviously had his problems – he missed out the 2013 and 2014 seasons altogether -  but he is clearly pretty useful and loves the Düsseldorf track, where he was winning for the fourth time in five local starts. He also runs best when fresh and this was the fourth time he has won on his seasonal debut. Bought by Udo Rattay, who still owns him, for only 4,500 euros at the BBAG October mixed sale in 2009, he is now trained by Annika Fust at Warendorf. She has only four horses in her yard, three of them owned by Rattay, and is best known under her maiden name of Rosenbaum – she was a leading lady jockey here a decade ago. Mighty Mouse actually won the same race back in 2012, when it was run at Cologne, but for a different trainer. Fust, for whom he was the biggest career winner so far, said afterwards that he would probably only run twice more this season.

Apart from the listred race, the most interesting events were the three races for three-year-olds on the card, and there quite likely to have been some potential classic candidates on view. The well-bred Poetic Dream won narrowly, but cosily, over seven furlongs for Jaber Andullah and Andreas Wöhler. His dam had won the Lingfield Oaks Trial for Abdullah, but this colt looks more of a miler and Wöhler confirmed that the Mehl-Mülhens-Rennen (2,000 Guineas) was the main target. “He is still very green, carried quite a bit of condition today and needed the race badly,” reported the trainer, and he can be expected to show considerable improvement.

Gestüt Röttgen´s homebred Attica (Tai Chi)won the fillies´ race easily enough; she is from Röttgen´s famous “A” family and her third dam is a half-sister to Anna Paola, winner of the German Oaks and direct ancestress of such stars as Champion Hurdler Annie Power and Australian Group One winners Helmet and Epaulette, both now Darley stallions. Attica, a first runner of the season for champion trainer Markus Klug, will now be aimed at the German 1,000 Guineas, which is being run very late this season – on June 18^th.

Klug clearly has his string well forward as he followed up three races later with the easiest winner of the afternoon, Horst Pudwill´s Shanjo (Soldier Hollow), who scored over an extended ten furlongs and has an entry in the German Derby. ”He had a minor problem last year,” reported the trainer, “but he is one my best three-year-olds.” He was very well bought at the BBAG Yearling Sale for 52,000 euros, and the day after his purchase his half-sister by Adlerflug won a Group Two at Baden-Baden. Pudwill, a German businessman based in Hong Kong, has made a big splash with his expensive yearling purchases at Baden-Baden, almost all colts by Soldier Hollow, who has enjoyed a tremendous month of March.

Soldier Hollow (In the Wings), a very tough and consistent racehorse who won a stakes race at every age from two to seven – despite a serious health scare – has been a major success at stud, first at Röttgen and now at Auenquelle, where he stands for 25,000 euros, a very high price by German standards but well justified by results. He has been successful from the word go, as his very first crop included German Derby winner Pastorius and recent County Hurdle winner Arctic Fire, while his second crop included Grosser Preis von Baden winner Ivanhowe. The latter was sold to Australia, where, now under the name Our Ivanhowe, he won two Group One races, including the Ranvet Stakes at the beginning of the month; he would have been favourite for last week´s The BMW, but unfortunately suffered a recurrence of the lameness which has periodically troubled him, and he has now been retired. Connections are looking to find a suitable place for him at stud.

Hoppegarten has the field to itself this weekend with its Sunday card, which also features a well-contested listed race, this time over a mile for 4yo and older fillies and mares. The nine runners include two who won group races last year – Shy Witch (Areion) and Princess Asta (Canford Cliffs). However they have to concede three kilos to the others, which will not be easy. Of particular interest will be Golden Gazelle, a Galileo half-sister to Golden Lilac, who was with André Fabre last season but has now been switched to Peter Schiergen, and Milenia (another Soldier Hollow!) from the in-form Klug stable.

David Conolly-Smith