Breeding & Racing in Germany

The victory march of German-bred sires in N.H. races continues, and in the past week we have seen winners in the U.K. by Malinas, Shirocco*, Masterrcraftsman*, Schiaparelli*, Waldpark, Sholokhov, Getaway* and Noroit*, in Ireland by Masked Marvel, Saddex and Ocovango*, and in France by Bathyrhon*. Those marked with an asterisk are all by Monsun, whose impact on N.H. racing remains huge. At the same time the filly La Crique (Vadamos*) was a Group Two winner on the flat in New Zealand. This list is probably not even complete, as more results keep coming in. Particularly successful recently have been the offspring of Fame and Glory (Montjeu), whose second dam is the German 1,000 Guineas winner Grimpola (Windwurf), and Shirocco, who have both had several winners this week.

Last weekend´s Dublin Racing Festival at Leopardstown must be regarded as a major success. Big and enthusiastic crowds, especially when one considers the circumstances, and excellent racing with top class winners, many of whom will be expected to go on to further success in Cheltenham next month. Big winner of the weekend was Ireland´s top N.H. trainer Willie Mullins, who won six of the eight Grade One races. But he missed out on the two most important races of all, Saturday´s Irish Gold Cup and Sunday´s Irish Champion Hurdle, won by Gordon Elliott´s Conflated and Henry de Bromhead´s Honeysuckle  (Sulamani) respectively, both of whom have German elements in their pedigrees.

The last few days have seen more numerous successes in N.H. races for runners by German-bred sires (or in some cases, sires that began their stallion career in Germany). At Lingfield´s big meeting last Sunday the Etzean-bred War Lord (Jukebox Jury) was an easy winner, while Pinkerton (Ocovango) and Ballyshannon Rose (Doyen) were both successful at Thurles (Ireland) and Fantastic Lady (Network), Theatre Glory (Fame and Glory) and Barrichello (Gentlewave) all scored at Warwick. Also at the weekend German-bred Zanini (Poseidon Adventure) won the big hurdle race at Pisa (Italy). There were more Irish successes on Tuesday at Down Royal, when Deploy the Getaway (Getaway), Rodaniche (Arcadio) and By The Same Token I (Fame and Glory) all won.

Racing taking place in Germany at present is only staged at the winter sand track at Dortmund, where there were 7 races last Sunday, the first fixture of 2022, with seven more scheduled for this Sunday; they also have racing there on the Sunday of next week, followed by two more in February and another two in March. The first meeting on turf takes place at Mülheim in late February, who also stage a meeting at the end of March.

There was racing at Mülheim last Saturday on very heavy ground and the card included the last valuable (relatively speaking) race of the season, a BBAG sales race for 3yo´s over 2000 metres. There was a big field with 15 runners and, as so often in such races, some quite considerable weight differences, with the three contestants on top weight (which depended on prize-money won) giving away up to 7 kilos. Surprisingly, one of them won, Atze (Amaron), trained in Hoppegarten by Roland Dzubasz, who was always well placed, improved his position on the turn into the straight where he soon led and he kept on well under Sibylle Vogt to score by half a length from American Fly (Maxios), who was in receipt of five kilos, with the filly Miss Marbel (Adlerflug), getting six kilos, 2½ lengths further back in third. The field was well strung out, with the two other top weights well back.