JUST 30 years ago Gestüt Brümmerhoff was transformed by Gregor Baum from an agricultural operation into a thoroughbred stud farm. Situated between Hannover and Hamburg, is extends to some 275 acres and is home to the stud’s 25 mares.

In the last three decades the farm has exploded on to the scene, thanks to some spectacular successes in the German sales ring and as breeder of some outstanding racehorses. The stud’s policy is to sell all its yearling colts and their commerciality is best exemplified by the fact that Brümmerhoff has headed the vendor’s table at the BBAG Yearling Sale on several occasions. Three of the four best prices ever for a German yearling at public auction in the country were for animals bred at Brümmerhoff.

Today the stud is run by Julia and Gregor Baum and they can look with some pride on a growing list of racing greats bred on the farm. Heading the list is the Group 1 King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Stakes and Group 1 Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe heroine Danedream, winner of the latter in record time.

Champion three-year-old filly Anna Monda, Dalicia the group-winning dam of Grade 1 Kentucky Derby winner Animal Kingdom, 2013 German 1000 Guineas winner Aku’ada, Nordico, Shimrano and the 2019 English and German Group 3 winner Waldpfad are also among the impressive roll of honour for the stud farm.

Shining bright in 2019 now is the Maxios (Monsun) filly Diamanta. On just her fifth start of the year, being unraced at two, she raised her game to new heights and landed the Group 1 Henkel-Preis der Diana, the German Oaks last weekend. In the process she gave her trainer Markus Klug and her jockey Maxim Pecheur their first wins in the race.

Diamanta wining the German Oaks \ Klaus-Joerg Tuchel

The victory was also an important landmark in the career of the winner’s sire Maxios who has just completed his sixth season at stud, based at Gestüt Fährhof where he covered at a fee of just €6,000. This is down from the €10,000 he started out at in 2014.

It is true that Maxios has started his stallion career quietly. His third crop of racing age are just two-year-olds. Realeza won a German Oaks Trial last year to become the sole stakes winner to date from his first crop, while Diamanta can claim the same achievement from his second crop. A further five runners have been stakes-placed, but perhaps the best is yet to come. What is the evidence pointing to this possibility?

While Maxios was a Group 3 winner at two when he was unbeaten, it was as a five-year-old that he blossomed, beating Planteur in the Group 1 Prix d’Ispahan, and defeating Olympic Glory and Anodin in the mile Group 1 Prix du Moulin de Longchamp. He was also runner-up in the Group 1 Prix Ganay to Pastorius.

Maxios in his racing days

From a famous female line, Maxios is a half-brother, out of Moonlight’s Box (Nureyev), to the multiple Group 1 winner and Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe hero Bago (Nashwan). Their grandam Coup De Genie (Mr Prospector) is a full-sister to Machiavellian, while at stud she bred the champion French juvenile filly and Group 1 Prix Marcel Boussac winner Denebola (Storm Cat).

What of the dam side of the German Oaks winner Diamanta? Victory in the Oaks was timely, just weeks ahead of Germany’s premier yearling sale on August 30th conducted by BBAG. Lot 56 in the catalogue is a colt by Golden Horn (Cape Cross) and he is one of a draft of 10 yearlings being offered for sale by Gestüt Brümmerhoff. He is the sixth foal of his dam Diamantgottin (Fantastic Light).

That mare won at two and was runner-up in the Group 3 Preis de Winterkonigin. Her best winner until the emergence of Diamanta was her first foal Diamant (Zamindar). He was the leading juvenile colt in Scandinavia, winning seven of his 13 starts in Norway and Sweden and finishing second in the Listed Norwegian Derby. Diamanta’s achievements have now put this record in the shade.

Diamanta is just the second filly produced by her dam and the first was Diamond Ring (Monsun). The latter is closely related to the recent classic winner and she is represented at the upcoming BBAG sale by her second progeny, a colt by Lord Of England (Dashing Blade). Her first offspring is a two-year-old filly Dia Monda (Pivotal) who is in training in France.

This is a branch of a well-known female line that is enjoying some resurgence. Diamantgottin is one of four stakes performers from Dunnellon (Shareef Dancer), a late maturing mare who placed at three in England but won four times the next year in Germany. The best of that quartet of blacktype earners was the only stakes winner, Diamantwelle (Xaar), who captured the Listed Premio Baggio in Italy.

There are a number of stakes winners emanating from the third dam of Diamanta, the two-year-old winner Dunoof (Shirley Heights). They number six and include recent stakes winner Isaan Queen (War Command) who won the Listed Chelmer Stakes in England.

Dunoof is a sibling to three mares who bred Group 1 winners. Most noteworthy is the fact that she is a full-sister to the Group 1 Premio Roma winner, Group 2 Ribblesdale Stakes winner and Group 1 Irish Oaks runner-up High Hawk (Shirley Heights). In addition to being an outstanding filly on the track at three, High Hawk went on to breed four group winners by Sadler’s Wells (Northern Dancer); In The Wings, Morozov, Hunting Hawk and Hawker’s News. The first named, In The Wings, won seven of 13 starts including the Grade 1 Breeders’ Cup Turf, Group 1 Coronation Stakes and Group 1 Grand Prix de Saint-Cloud.

Another sibling to Dunoof was the dual winner High Tern (High Line) and the best of her stakes winners was High-Rise (High Estate). His day in the sun came at Epsom in 1998 when he annexed the Group 1 Derby. The winning filly Seriema (Petingo) was another of Dunoof’s sibling to breed a top-level winner and this came about when her son Infamy (Shirley Heights) landed the Grade 1 Rothmans International at Woodbine in Canada.