David Conolly-Smith

GERMANY’S top race meeting, the “Grosse Woche” at Baden-Baden, starts today at the pretty Iffezheim racecourse.

The first six days all have a group race as the main feature, with the Group 1 Grosser Preis von Baden on the second Sunday as the highlight of the whole meeting. The impressive German Derby winner Sea The Moon, currently ante-post favourite for the Arc, is expected to run here.

Today’s big race is a Group 3 over 10 furlongs, in which two previous winners, Zazou (2011) and Polish Volcano (2013) are expected to clash, as well as a raider from France, but Sunday’s card is more interesting and features Germany’s top sprint, the Goldene Peitsche (“Golden Whip”).

Although the prize money here is nothing special, the attraction of the race is the winning owner’s trophy, literally a golden whip engraved with all the winners of the race going back to 1867.

This never fails to ensure a good field, and 13 runners, from five different countries, were declared.

A definite runner is Irish contestant Big Time, trained by John Murphy, who has booked top local jockey Filip Minarik to ride. “He got jarred up at Royal Ascot (Jersey Stakes) last time,” said the Co Cork trainer, “but is in great form now and I think that this is the right race for him.”

Also on Sunday’s card is the Listed Baden-Baden Cup, sponsored by Coolmore, and 15 have been declared here as well, this time from six different countries.

A major feature of the week is the BBAG yearling sale, which this year will be held for the first time on the Tuesday.

With German-breds in great demand, and following the positive results from Deauville and Doncaster, BBAG manager Carola Ortlieb is confident of a good result, possibly even a new record. “We have agents, trainers and buyers coming from all over,” she said, “including the Hong Kong Jockey Club, some high-powered Americans and Australians and many of the top European agents such as David Redvers, John Ferguson, Angus Gold, Peter Doyle and Tom Goff.”

The catalogue is the BBAG’s strongest ever and includes six yearlings from the final crop of Monsun, already responsible this month for the Deauville sales-topper.