Roger Varian is looking forward to stepping Defoe up in trip next year after he ended 2018 by being placed in a Group 1 race for the third time this season.

The four-year-old colt had to settle for second place behind Iquitos in the Grosser Preis von Bayern at Munich on Thursday, after he occupied the same position at Baden-Baden in September.

Defoe made a bid for victory two furlongs out after Windstoss had set the pace, but Andrea Atzeni’s mount was soon headed by the German-trained Iquitos, who bounded clear to score by four lengths in the hands of Eddy Hardouin.

Defoe kept on and was four lengths in front of the Mark Johnston-trained Dee Ex Bee in third. Godolphin’s Racing History, trained by Saeed bin Suroor, was sixth of the seven starters.

Varian said: “He ran a good race. The winner really bounced back to form and is a good horse on his day. He had the rest well cooked behind. I don’t know if it was a peak performance or if it was just a good run.

“He has run well all year and his only blip was in the Arc. You can forgive him that from stall 18 on lively ground against that opposition. That will be it for this year.

“He could be interesting up in trip next year.”