THERE was a French-trained winner of the Group 1 Deutsches Derby on Sunday, but in every other respect it was a home win. Owned by Gestüt Schlenderhan and bred by Stall Ullman, In Swoop was winning for just the second time when he landed the premier German classic.

He warmed up for this victory when running third in the Group 2 Prix Greffulhe and he has some tasty entries ahead.

His trainer Francis-Henri Graffard is making a huge impact in the training ranks and this victory is another example why. In Swoop was winning the German Derby 13 years after his sire Adlerflug (In The Wings) achieved the same feat. The champion three-year-old of his year in his native country, Adlerflug added a second Group 1 success a year later in the Deutschland-Preis. He stands at Gestüt Schlenderhan and this year’s fee was €10,000.

Adlerflug has averaged about 30 foals a year and from these small numbers he has managed to sire four Group 1 winners, two of them classic winners. Indeed, one of his other winners at this level is In Swoop’s own-brother Ito (Adlerflug) who was champion older horse in Germany five years ago when he won the Grosser Preis von Bayern. They are two of the three stakes-winning offspring out of Iota, the other being Igraine (Galileo).

Iota is a daughter of Tiger Hill (Danehill) and her three victories included the Group 1 Preis der Diana-German Oaks. She and the stakes winners Illo (Tertullian) and Ioannina (Rainbow Quest) make up one-third of the nine winning offspring of the stakes-placed Iora (Konigsstuhl).

This is another of these German female lines that throws up winner after winner, champion after champion. The latter category included Irian (Tertullian) who won the Group 2 German 2000 Guineas a little over a decade ago and showed his ability on the international stage when he captured the Group 2 Hong Kong Jockey Club Cup and was twice runner-up in the Group 1 Hong Kong Cup, on the first occasion beaten a neck by Snow Fairy.