Hopes aloft at Germany’s season finale in Munich

MUNICH – The season finale at the Munich-Riem racecourse on Nov 7 has it all, a Premium Race Day that looks set to exceed all expectations before the curtain falls on this year.

The Group 1 Grosser Preis von Bayern (2,400m), the last of seven Group 1 races in Germany, is the highlight of the nine races on the programme.

The €155,000 (S$222,000) event has attracted a numerically and athletically strong class field of 10, including four overseas guests, two apiece from England and France.

International top trainers Francis-Henri Graffard (France) and Sir Mark Prescott (England) will likely saddle the two top fancies, four-year-old mares, Tajlina and Consent, respectively.

A winner of the Group 1 Prix de Royalieu (2,800m) in 2025, Consent will be ridden by Luke Morris, who won the race for Prescott aboard Alpinista in 2021.

Coming off a last-start second to Queenstown in the Group 1 Prix Royal-Oak (3,100m) at Saint-Cloud on Oct 25, the Lope De Vega mare is peaking to her best form.

Tajlina is not one of multiple-Group 1-winning Graffard’s best, but the Kingman mare ran a nice fifth to Minnie Hauk at her first offshore raid, in the Group 1 British Champions Fillies & Mares Stakes (2,400m) at Ascot on Oct 17.

She will be partnered by Pierre-Charles Boudot, the multiple French champion jockey who has made a successful comeback from legal issues this year.

With Wathnan Racing’s No. 1 rider James Doyle, who takes the reins on Listed Kempton winner Gethin, another world-class jockey is coming to Riem. German-based French jockey Benjamin Marie steers the outsider Herbal from France.

Herbal is trained by little-known trainer Philippe Decouz, who is, however, famous for training horses like Tornibush and Txope for French football star Antoine Griezmann.

The Chantilly handler is aware that Herbal, a two-time winner who has performed creditably at his two Group runs at ParisLongchamp in France, is facing an arduous task, but remained optimistic.

“He’s a very talented horse I really believe in. He’s improved a lot through the season,” said Decouz of the Lope De Vega four-year-old.

“We’re coming to Munich because I hope that his condition has grown. He definitely needs soft ground and I think the classic distance will be sweet for him.

“Of course it’s a very strong race with some of the best horses over that classic distance, but I believe Herbal is a very good horse and I think he deserves to compete against the best horses in Europe.”

Among the local team, ironically, Riem trainer Michael Figge is also relying on a Frenchman, Antoine Hamelin, for his four-year-old Snow Player.

The Dariyan entire won a Group 3 event at his last start in Hoppegarten on Oct 3, the Preis der Deutschen Einheit (2,000m), bringing up his career tally to four wins.

“Snow Player was a very easy winner last time in Hoppegarten last when he won a Group 3 race by four lengths,” said Figge.

“He’s been improving every month and we don’t know where his limit is. He started his season in St Moritz on the frozen lake when he won by four lengths, he also won in Munich before.

“We hope he can repeat or even top his last performance.”

It is perhaps no coincidence that Figge has picked the former Hong Kong-based Hamelin for the ride. After racing Feuerblitz in the Group 1 Hong Kong Cup (2,000m) in 2012 and 2013, without winning, he is dreaming of another Asian adventure.

“We’re looking forward to this race on Saturday. Maybe he could get an invitation to the Hong Kong Vase (in December),” said Figge.

Other leading German hopes on Saturday include the classy Peter Schiergen-trained six-time Group winner Santagada as well as the Hank Grewe-trained Akido to a lesser extent.

Schiergen’s Cologne team also sends Daytona, who is an outsider, while Global Health (Fabian Xaver Weissmeier) and the 2025 Derby winner, Hochkonig (Yasmin Almenrader), come to the event with good form. DEUTSCHER GALOPP