The English page - Successful weekend for German racing and breeding

Last weekend was a very successful one for the German racing and breeding industries. At home, the Baden-Baden Spring Meeting went well, while abroad there were several significant performances in top races by German-breds.

Leading trainer Markus Klug sent two of his older stars, four-year-old Windstoss (Shirocco) – last year´s German Derby winner – and five-year-old Dschingis Secret (Soldier Hollow) to run in top races abroad and bother acquitted themselves very well – Windstoss as third in the Coronation Cup at Epsom, less than four lengths behind Europe´s best horse Cracksman (Frankel), while Dschingis Secret was certainly not disgraced when runner-up in the Group Two Grand Prix du Chantilly, conceding weight all round. The winner of that race Waldgeist (Galileo) is trained by André Fabre but is basically a German-bred, being out of a Monsun mare from the famous Ravensberg “W” family. Shortly afterwards Waldgeist´s three parts sister Waldlied (New Approach) ran a very promising second in the  Prix du Royaumont and looks one to follow for the rest of the season. Both the siblings are jointly owned by Gestüt Ammerland and German-owned Newsells Park.  In the USA, the Karlshof-bred La Force (Power) was an excellent runner-up in the Group One Beholder Stakes at Santa Anita. Wild Illusion (Dubawi), another one out of a Monsun mare, was runner-up in the Oaks, while the Epsom Derby runner up Dee Ex Bee, is by Farhh, who is out of a German mare, as are the second, fourth and fifth-placed runners in the Prix du Jockey Club (French Derby).

The Baden-Baden meeting well, the weather was fine, the track was in much better condition than has sometimes been the case, betting turnover was up by almost 5%, the atmosphere was very positive and we saw some good winners, notably two of Germany´s most popular horses. Five-year-old entire Millowitsch (easily the best performer sired by the good miler Sehrezad (Titus Livius) in a very short stallion career) ran out an easy winner of the Silberne Peitsche (“Silver Whip”), trained by Markus Klug and ridden as always by 50-year-old Andreas Helfenbein, Germany´s oldest professional jockey.  He likes to make the running, but this time the speedy Daring Match (Call me Big) was faster from the gate; however that one is best at five furlongs, and Millowitsch went by him easily enough to score by three-quarters of a length from Schäng (Contat), who ran an excellent race on ground that was too fast for him and lost a shoe into the bargain, and Scapina (Tai Chi), who finished best of all after a very slow start. These horses could well meet again in a similar race at the Hamburg Derby meeting, as the programme for six furlong specialists is rather limited here; in fact Millowitsch is probably better at seven furlongs, at which distance there are hardly any races at all. He has now won nine of his seventeen starts, been placed six times and fourth the other twice, a remarkably consistent record.

Even more impressive is the record of six-year-old entire Iquitos (Adlerflug), who finished very strongly from the rear to win the meeting´s top event, the Group Two Grosser Preis der Badischen Wirtschaft. He has now won seven of his 21 starts and been runner-up six times, almost all in Group One or Group Two races. He is a real credit to his connections; veteran trainer Hans-Jürgen Gröschel postponed his planned retirement two years ago because of this one horsed and has been rewarded with a string of top performances, especially at Baden-Baden, where he has never yet been out of the first two. He feels that Iquitos is better going left-handed and his likely route this season is the Grand Prix de Saint-Cloud, the Munich Group One which he won last year, back to Baden-Baden for the Grosser Preis, and then possibly the Japan Cup again – all at left-handed tracks. “We deliberately did not enter him for the Arc this year,” Gröschel stated, a race in which he finished seventh last year. Iquitos was well ridden by Frenchman Eddy Hardouin, who is to keep the ride. He held him up as habitual front-runner Oriental Eagle (Campanologist) set a strong pace, came to challenge between horses a furlong and a half out and won comfortably from Walsingham (another Campanologist), running his best ever race, and old rival and 2017 winner Guignol (Cape Cross).

However, as far as the future is concerned, the most significant race of the meeting could turn out to be the Ittlingen Derby Trial, which was won in really impressive style by Jaber Abdullah´s Royal Youmzain (no prizes for guessing his sire). He looks the real deal and in the opinion of this writer there is no three-year-old in Germany who can beat him at present. He is now rated 113, an extremely high mark for a German three-year-old at this time of year, and is now a clear favourite for the Deutsches Derby in a month´s time.

The best German racing this weekend comes from Hoppegarten; the Berlin track is staging its “Fashion Weekend” with Gentlemen Day on Saturday and Ladies Day on Sunday. The main feature is the Group Two Diana Trial on Sunday. Nine fillies will line up, almost all of them with an entry in the German Oaks at Düsseldorf on August 5^th. Stall Ullmann´s Well Timed (Holy Roman Emperor) has the highest rating and will probably start favourite, but it looks very open, and Angelita (Areion) and Felora (Lord of England) – an own sister to Feodora, who won the Preis der Diana in 2014 for owner-breeder Gestüt Etzean and trainer Andreas Wöhler- are just two of several obvious dangers.