LAST Sunday’s winner of the Group 1 Grosser Dallmayr-Preis at Munich, Stall Ullmann’s Guiliani, could well run next in Leopardstown’s QIPCO Irish Champion Stakes on September 12th, says trainer Jean-Pierre Carvalho.

“Now that he has won a Group 1, some of the races we were thinking about are out, but we have entered him in Ireland and that is obviously a race that we have to consider.”

The top German horses have been running all over the world recently, but German runners in Ireland are certainly a rarity - the last being Sumitas, also owned by Baron Ullmann, when fifth to Giant’s Causeway in the same race in the year 2000.

Guiliani had won on his debut over 10 furlongs, but had been campaigned mainly over a mile since then. “However I always felt that 10 furlongs would be his best distance,” says the trainer, who spent much of his career as a jockey based in Munich, “this racecourse is my home from home.”

The pedigree suggests that he is right. His sire Tertullian, German champion sire last year and well placed again this season, was a seven furlongs specialist but his progeny generally get middle-distances well enough.

He is certainly bred for the job as he is a three-parts brother to Arc winner Urban Sea, dam of Galileo and Sea The Stars. Guiliani’s dam Guadalupe, a daughter of Monsun, was one of the best fillies in Europe over a mile and a half in 2002, winning the Italian Oaks (then a valuable Group 1), runner-up in the Yorkshire Oaks and third in the German version, and fourth in the Vermeille. The family has produced numerous top flight performers for the Ullmann family.

The race itself was rather a messy affair and was marred by an ugly incident at the start, when English raider Air Pilot tried to get loose in the stalls, injured himself and had to be withdrawn.

Jockey Pat Smullen walked away unscathed, but Air Pilot sustained a nasty gash which had to be stitched; it looked horrible, but fortunately turned out to be less serious than feared and the horse was able to travel back home a couple of days later.

This certainly devalued the race somewhat, as Air Pilot - who had been supplemented – was the only foreign runner, while it also caused a problem for the other jockeys, as Air Pilot had been expected to make the running.

As it was, the filly Wunder jumped best and was a reluctant leader at a sedate pace from the other filly in the field Daytona Bay, with the favourite Lucky Lion (last year’s winner) close up and Guiliani held up. The order was virtually unchanged until the final two furlongs, with Wunder still going well in the lead and Lucky Lion looking the main challenger.

However he failed to quicken, and it was Guiliani who came charging up to lead 150 yards out, with Ajalo, the only three-year-old in the field, finishing strongly on the outside to get second close home. Wunder kept on for a close third, with Lucky Lion a head back in fourth, and local hope Magic Artist was a disappointing fifth and possibly still feeling the effects of his race in Belmont Park seven weeks earlier.

This was clearly not the world’s best Group 1 and Guiliani is only rated 113 at present. However, it must be said that the first three home were also the three least exposed runners and all are capable of considerable improvement.

This is certainly true of Ajalo, who is bred along similar lines to the winner, being by King’s Best (a half-brother to Urban Sea) out of a Monsun mare.

He was runner-up in two classic trials (to arguably the two best German three-year-olds), but ran poorly last time in France; he can be excused that effort, and looks well capable of winning group races, possibly over further.

Both he and Wunder would probably have benefited from Air Pilot running and setting a stronger pace, and I would not be at all surprised to see the quality of the Munich race look much better by the end of the season.