JOSEPH O´Brien, who has enjoyed spectacular success since beginning training in 2016, breaks new ground tomorrow when the much improved Patrick Sarsfield will be his first ever runner in Germany. The four-year-old, owned by Chantal Regalado-Gonzalez, was gelded during the winter after easily winning a maiden at the Curragh last October and has gone from strength to strength this year, winning all three starts very easily, premier handicaps at Leopardstown and Navan and a fortnight ago the Group 3 Meld Stakes. He now moves up in grade again to contest Munich’s Group 1 Grosser Dallmayr-Preis, Germany’s top 10-furlong event.

Foreign-trained runners have an excellent record here, and three Irish runners scored in the 1990s, trained by Michael Kauntze, Dermot Weld and John Oxx respectively, but the last Irish contestant was Weld’s Famous Name, runner-up in 2011.

Godolphin have also been on the scoreboard twice here, most recently with the smart Benbatl in 2018. He was trained by Saeed bin Suroor, but this time both Godolphin runners are trained by Charlie Appleby, and they could well prove to be the main stumbling blocks for Patrick Sarsfield.

Barney Roy, the mount of William Buick, looks the more likely of the pair and was an excellent third in the Prince of Wales’s Stakes at Royal Ascot last time out, but Spotify (James Doyle) is no slouch, although held by Barney Roy on Meydan form.

Another team going double-handed into the race is Stall Salzburg, whose runners are trained locally by Sarah Steinberg. They both ran in the race last year with Way Key Star finishing runner-up to Danceteria and Quest The Moon third.

However, on the balance of their form, Quest The Moon can be preferred, and he will be partnered by stable jockey René Piechulek, with Germany’s top lady jockey Sibylle Vogt on Wai Key Star.

Quest The Moon was a narrow winner of the main event at Baden-Baden’s May Meeting two months ago with Wai Key Star third. Runner-up then was the filly Durance, who last year finished third in the German Oaks, a short-head behind Naida, and this pair resume rivalry here. The two fillies, in receipt of 3lb from the male runners, are certainly not out of it in what looks to be a very open race.

However, the three foreign runners could just about have the upper hand and Patrick Sarsfield, reported to have come on again since Leopardstown, is clearly a danger to them all.

He has so far this year been ridden by Declan McDonogh, but with Irish jockeys currently facing two weeks of mandatory isolation on their return to Ireland, star Dutch jockey Adrie de Vries has been booked to partner him in Munich this time.