The English page - Two highlights for Fährhof

The recent Hamburg Derby meeting had five days of racing, including the Group One German Derby, the Group Two Grosser Hansa-Preis, two more group races and two listed races – both traditional races with a long history- as well as a couple of valuable BBAG sales races and a large number of low level handicaps, most of which attracted large fields. With only just over 2,000 horses currently in training in Germany, it was clear that the meetings following on from Hamburg would suffer. Leipzig last Thursday, a rare weekday fixture, had six races, only one of which had more than 6 runners – and that was the worst race on the card with 1,750 euros to the winner.

The following day things were slightly better at Hanover, which staged a well-contested listed race over a mile; it was not restricted to fillies, but fillies took the first two places, with Gestüt Brümmerhof´s homebred Villefranche (Siyouni) making all the running at a steady pace and easily holding Newmarket raider Loch Lundie (Shamardal), who chased her throughout. The winner is trained by Peter Schiergen, whose other runner Sahib´s Joy (Soldier Hollow) started favourite but would probably have preferred a stronger pace and finished a well-beaten third.

The main race of the weekend was run the following day at Magdeburg, the state capital of Saxony-Anhalt. The Grosser Preis der Landeshauptstadt Magdeburg, a Group Three over 2050 metres, was in fact the first group race ever run at the Herrenkrug racecourse and had 7 runners. Although the race, previously staged under various different names at Hamburg, was for 3yo´s and up, only older horses actually lined up. Schiergen´s Lord Charming (Charm Spirit) started favourite, but a filly once again came out of top. Lord Charming led into the straight, but had no answer to the powerful finish of Gestüt Ittlingen´s homebred 4yo India (Adlerflug) who finally scored by two lengths, with another 4yo filly Alaskasonne (Soldier Hollow) 2 ¼ lengths back in third. This was a thoroughly convincing victory for India, her first group race win after two listed victories, and she looks capable of even better. She was 10^th of 16 in last year´s Preis der Diana but is clearly hugely improved this season and is 3 from 3 in 2022. She is entered in Baden-Baden´s Group Two for fillies and mares over 2400 metres, and on pedigree should certainly stay that distance.

However the highlights of last weekend, at least in the eyes of this observer, were two maiden races, both won by debutants owned and bred by Gestüt Fährhof; not only that, they are both trained by Andreas Wöhler, were both ridden by Eddie Pedroza and are siblings. In Hanover it was the 3yo colt Huancayo (Frankel) who won with the greatest of ease over 2,000 metres. He was held up towards the rear, but once Pedroza made his move, the race was over in a matter of strides. He possibly did not have much to beat here, but the style in which he did so was certainly eyecatching.

Even more impressive was his younger half-sister Habana (Kingman), who won over 1300 metres at Cologne. She was the only filly in the small field, and was again held up until the straight was reached, but like her half-brother then put her opponents to the sword in “breathtaking” style (according to German racing paper the Sport-Welt). The progamme for 2yo´s in Germany has a very slow start, and this was only the fifth juvenile race of the season. With all due respect, the first four winners did not really fire the imagination, but this one certainly did. She is entered in the Zukunfts-Rennen at Baden-Baden and then the Preis der Winterkönigin, Germany´s top race for 2yo fillies, and it will take a really good one to beat her. In fact she could easily turn out to be the top German juvenile of her crop.

The dam of this pair Hargeisa (Speightstown) was also bred by Fährhof and was a top 2yo in 2016, winning the Badener Jugendpreis and the Group Three Premio Passi and she was also placed third in the Prix Robert Papin. However she was rather disappointing at three; after running third in an early classic trial, she was well beaten in her remaining three starts. However the choice of sires to cover her as a broodmare show that she was well fancied to make the grade in this respect and she has certainly got off to a great start. Huancayo was her first foal, Habana her second; sadly she miscarried when in foal to Sea The Stars, but now has a filly foal by Pinatubo. We remember well the glory days of Fährhof in the 70s and 80s with such superstars as Surumu, Acatenango and the ill-fated Lirung to represent them; things have been a bit quieter in recent years and in 2021 there were apparently only two Fährhof homebred winners in Germany. However with this pair to represent them, both looking well capable of scoring at black type level (at least), the good times can start rolling again.

Gestüt Fährhof is owned by the Jacobs family, which also owns Maine Chance Farm in South Africa and also for several years owned Newsells Park. That highly successful Hertfordshire stud has since been sold, but it is interesting to see that it has a runner this Sunday in Mülheim´s listed race for fillies, a trial for the Preis der Diana. Its contestant Yummylicious (Dubawi) is trained by John and Thady Gosden in Newmarket and has the best pedigree in the field, belonging to the highly successful Grimpola family, but the race looks wide open with two raiders also coming from France; almost any of the 12 likely runners could win. However the Gosdens only very rarely have runners in Germany and it can be assumed that they mean business with their Dubawi filly. This weekend also sees the start of the highly popular Bad Harzburg meeting, five days of racing in the Harz mountains resort town which usually attracts big crowds, and with most covid-19 restrictions now lifted in Germany, looks certain to do so again.

David Conolly-Smith