Breeding & Racing in Germany

As we now move into March, there are clear signs that spring is on the way, although it still seems very cold in most parts of Germany. There is still very little happening in Germany, but last week we had the Saudi World Cup with 20 million US $ the most valuable race ruin in the world. The race was run on the dirt track at the King Abdulaziz racecourse in Riyadh, which is regarded on one of the world´s best dirt tracks and there was a strong entry from Japan and the United States; not surprisingly they dominated the event, with Japanese-trained Panthalassa (Lord Konaloa) making all the running to win comfortably from U.S.-trained Country Grammer (Tonalist), runner-up for the second time, while it was also the second successive victory in this event for a Japanese horse: In recent years the Japanese have been extremely successful in such races.

There is very little happening in German racing at the moment. There are six more fixtures on Dortmund´s sand track until late March, when racing on turf begins again. In the meantime there will be plenty of German-trained runners at the Cagnes-sur-Mer meeting, which started this week, and also a few at the St. Moritz meeting on the frozen lake in February (assuming the weather allows this to take place.) There have also been entries for German runners at the extremely valuable meetings in Saudi Arabia next month, as well as the Dubai Racing Carnival.

This is a very quiet time of year for German racing. We have just two days´ racing in Germany in January, both on Dortmund´s sand track, and another two more at Dortmund in February. There is then racing on three successive Sundays in March, followed by the first turf fixture, at Düsseldorf on March 28^th. There is therefore no racing at all on most of the weeks in the immediate future. This is to a certain extent a reflection of the fact that the industry has shrunk quite alarmingly this century; there are now only about 2,000 horses in training, compared to well over 3,000 just 20 years ago. To a certain extent this is also due to the fact that the only other winter track, at Neuss and founded in 1875, closed down three years ago. This has also impacted on the breeding situation.

There was racing on turf at Baden-Baden last Saturday, but from now on we are only going to have racing on the sand track at Dortmund for the next three months. The sole exception is the traditional Boxing Day fixture at Mülheim, but there must be a slight doubt about that as winter seems to have arrived and it has now turned very cold. Dortmund´s winter meeting begins this Sunday and there are in all ten days scheduled: New Year´s Eve, followed by two days in January, two more in February and four in March, almost all on Sunday with a very early start. This means that there are several weeks in January and February with no racing at all in Germany. This is mainly due to the fact that the other all-weather track, in Neuss, is now closed and extremely unlikely ever to reopen. Racing on turf resumes in April with the first group race on the 16^th, the Kalkmann Frühjahrsmeile at Düsseldorf.