SUNDAY BADEN BADEN
3.55 GROSSER PREIS VON BANDEN (GROUP 1) 1M 4F
SUNDAY’S Group 1 Grosser Preis von Baden is regarded as Germany’s most important weight for age event, but unfortunately there will be no three-year-olds in this year’s edition.
Weltstar, this year’s German Derby winner, was an intended runner, but pulled up lame after his final workout and had to be scratched.
His owner Gestüt Röttgen and trainer Markus Klug, are still represented by the 2017 German Derby winner Windstoss, and Klug has now supplemented the five-year-old Dschingis Secret as well.
Dschingis Secret, Germany’s current Horse of the Year, was expected to run in the Prix Foy, which he won last year as his Arc trial. Instead he has now surprisingly been switched at the owner’s request to a race at a course where he has never sparkled in the past.
Iquitos, on the other hand, is a real track specialist; this six-year-old won the Grosser Preis in 2016, was runner-up last year and has also twice won the main event at the spring meeting here.
At his favourite track he can never be ignored; he finished just behind Dschingis Secret in last year’s Arc but can turn the tables here.
DANGEROUS
The two British runners, both Newmarket trained four-year-olds, look very dangerous.
Godolphin’s Best Solution, trained by Saeed bin Suroor and ridden by Pat Cosgrave, finished well in front of three of Sunday’s rivals when winning the Grosser Preis von Berlin with an impressive burst of speed.
He gets the trip really well, unusual for a son of Kodiac, but he is closely related to St Leger winner Brian Boru, and seems much improved this year; he needs to be, as he was well beaten at Baden-Baden last year.
Roger Varian’s Defoe, the mount of Andrea Atzeni, has not run since finishing third in the Tattersalls Gold Cup in May and has presumably been waiting for the ground to ease.
The long heatwave has finally come to an end, and conditions here should be fine.
He is also regarded as an Arc candidate, so a strong performance here can be expected.
One of the most interesting runners is the five-year-old mare Night Music, a half-sister by Sea The Stars to the 2010 winner of this race Night Magic.
Trained in Munich by 30-year-old Sarah Steinberg, who is having a tremendous season with an excellent strike rate, Night Music has won her last five starts, none of them in Germany, and last time out was an easy winner of the Group 2 Gran Premio di Milano. This is tougher, but she cannot be ignored; she was originally expected to run in the Yorkshire Oaks last week, but was switched here when Oisin Murphy, who gets on very well with her, was unavailable in York.
He has the ride now and also partners the promising two-year-old Quest the Moon for the same connections in the Group 3 Zukunftsrennen, also on Sunday.