THE form of this year’s German Derby had looked very shaky, but it was given a big boost last Sunday in Cologne when Hamburg victor Windstoss, trained by Markus Klug and ridden with great confidence by Adrie de Vries, ran out a very easy winner of the Group 1 Preis von Europa. He became the first three-year-old this century to bring off this particular double.

It was a messy race and de Vries held Windstoss at the back of the field as there was a lot of jockeying for position up front. He made rapid progress on the wide outside as the field came into the straight, led two out and went on to score by four lengths from the filly Son Macia. running her best ever race and just holding the winner’s stable companion Colomano for second place.