- This topic has 28 replies, 11 voices, and was last updated 18 years, 6 months ago by
.
- Posts
Courthouse Steps rings a bell – I usually take a trip to the Grosse Woche at Baden-Baden every year, and if I remember correctly, that horse ran a couple of days before I got there, and was beaten into second by one of Christians.
Having a horse trained at Baden-Baden gives you several courses to look at. Fechner, Rulec, Hefter and Olsanik – how many times have I seen those names on France Galop?? And you can add to those Manfred Weber. A breakaway group from the GCD, called Galopp Club Sueddeutschland, have a French bred filly trained in Baden-Baden (sound familiar??!!), and she’s run at Strasbourg and Vittel. Weber trains her, but I don’t think she’s done much so far.
Added to France, you’re pretty close to the Swiss courses as well. There’s some pretty decent racing over there, and Robert Havlin is actually one of the top jockeys in Switzerland!! You can get to Aarau, Frauenfeld and Avenches in a couple of hours, and the price money can be surprisinly decent. Incredibly, Baden-Baden is closer to Avenches and Aarau than it is to Frankfurt!!!
Regarding low key trainers, I agree, Nina Bach does well with just a few horses. However, the name to watch out for next season could be Ilona Buschmaas. She’s only got a couple of horses, but one of them, Wurfstern (not Weststern!!!!) won a decent race at BB when I was there, and Eddie Pedroza (jockey) said he thought it was a decent horse. However, another name to watch is Dirk Austmeyer. Now despite my obvious bias towards the von der Recke stable, Austmeyer, who only has 3 horses, trains what I think is the best hurdler to come out of Germany in recent years – Trigeminus. After winning everything in Germany, he went to Milan for their Champion Hurdle, where he fell, but I think if he ran in England, he could seriously do quite well.
Darren – Anglo German
Must admit we thought we would beat Ocean of dreams in BB, it was the only time ive been disappointed with a ride on one of ours all season (Starke), holding him up off a slow pace was mad,instructions where to sit handy as we where convinced we would outstay the winner, i also think Courthouse is too familiar with the surroundings and he prefers to travel to the races, talking of WURFSTERN Courthouse was 2nd to him in Koeln!
WURFSTERN is literally owned by Eddie P! when he was trained by Wohler he was an absolute maniac but with talent, it was suggested he must be trained on his own, so he was sold for a €1000……..one only has to look at him walking around the parade ring to see he`s much better than the grade he`s running,saying that he`s still a bit of a lad, in his last race in BB he wasn`t going anywhere for most of the race but really picked his bit up when he got into the short straight!!
I never miss a meeting at BB, many of my contacts and friends are from this area so its always a good meet!!
With regards to Nina Bach she acquired an horse from Darley “MACABRE“, this horse should rattle up a few wins next season if h`capper doesnt get carried away by good run in much better grade lto,still,German h`capper hardly reacts !
My biggest critiscism of German racing is the stewards, in polite words they are inconsistant, throwing out BAHAMA MAMA was a disgrace and they know it,have you noticed from that day onwards they haven`t been so condeming?
We have a ‘Ten to follow’ style competition in the GCD – I’m not doing too bad this year, but Wurfstern will certainly be on my list for next year!
When Weststern won the Fegentri in Cologne back in May (same day as the German 2000 Guineas), we had to survive a stewards enquiry there – our rider, Vanessa Rodenbusch had a job to keep him straight, but he was carrying 70 kilos (!), and apparently, the lead was shifting about (little Vanessa only weighs about 50!), but the stewards realised what had happened and took no action. Yes, the stewards can be a bit hit and miss, but I hoestly think they’re better that the ones in France.
Of all the times I’ve been in Baden-Baden, I’ve never met another Brit (apart from trainers and jockeys). However, I’m looking at a bit of a slightly more international schedule change next year, so I’m not sure if I’ll be going – I’m hoping to go to Bad Harzburg, as well as Merano for the Gran Premio, with the Velka Pardubicka a possibility.
Darren – Anglo German
Of all the times I’ve been in Baden-Baden, I’ve never met another Brit (apart from trainers and jockeys).
Too early to give specific dates, but I’m looking to put that right at some point next year.
gc
Jeremy Grayson. Son of immigrant. Adoptive father of two. Metadata librarian. Freelance point-to-point / horse racing writer, analyst and commentator wonk. Loves music, buses, cats, the BBC Micro, ale. Advocate of CBT, PACE and therapeutic parenting. Aspergers.
GC – If this helps, I’ve got the dates of next years meetings:
Spring Meeting:
Saturday 17th May
Sunday 18th May
Wednesday 21st May
Thursday 22nd May
Saturday 24th May
Sunday 25th May‘Great Week’:
Saturday 30th August
Sunday 31st August
Tuesday 2nd September
Wednesday 3rd September
Friday 5th September
Sunday 7th SeptemberSales & Marketing Festival:
Friday 17th October
Saturday 18th October
Sunday 19th OctoberMost if not all race days hold a group race on the Flat, and you’ll also see one national hunt race. This can either be a hurdle race, a steeplechase (if under 4400 metres), or (if over 4400 metres) a steeplechase with the bank through the trees – a wonderful spectacle.
Most race days begin at around 2:00 pm (can be slightly earlier for the Sales & Marketing Festival), and you usually get 8 flat races and 1 national hunt.There’s a wonderful atmosphere – I call it Germanys answer to Royal Ascot, and you can get crowds of up to around 25,000 for the Grosser Preis von Baden (7th September next year).
Hope this helps – if you need any more info, let me know.
Darren – AngloGerman
Graysoncolumn……. If you need advice on accommodation and how to get it for a fair price let me know, if you would like to reserve a place in Racecourse Restaurant (Great viewing) or a logia its cheaper if you Book for the whole week, as an owner i can get you a 15% discount!!…..again nearer the time let me know and i will be happy to arrange for you.
Here`s the website of the racecourse
Tony – Have you recieved a phone call or e-mail in the last hour about Dieter Fechner? It appears he’s closing his stable – this from a journalist in Baden-Baden.
Tony25, AngloGerman, thank you both! I’m going to bookmark this thread and refer back to it in the new year, once I have an idea when I’m going to be in Germany next (probably some big family bash in Hessen in May or June). A meeting with at least a little jumps action would rate a must.
gc
Jeremy Grayson. Son of immigrant. Adoptive father of two. Metadata librarian. Freelance point-to-point / horse racing writer, analyst and commentator wonk. Loves music, buses, cats, the BBC Micro, ale. Advocate of CBT, PACE and therapeutic parenting. Aspergers.
GC – If it’s jumps action you want, I’m not sure Germany is the place!! However, if you want something a bit different, make your way to Hamburg or Bad Harzburg in the summer. Not too near Hessen I grant you, but they are home to the incredible ‘Seejagdrennen’ – a steeplechase with a difference!! You can check them out on YouTube:
Bad Harzburg: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EAs-nWaeHio
Hamburg: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eqIrzVke … re=related
As mentioned before, Baden-Baden has a wonderful steeplechase course with a bank through the trees, but I can’t find any videos of it.
Darren – AngloGerman
Tony – Have you recieved a phone call or e-mail in the last hour about Dieter Fechner? It appears he’s closing his stable – this from a journalist in Baden-Baden.
Hi Darren……..Maybe i already knew (From my earlier post in this thread)
graysonscolumn……….Don`t hold out for great jump racing, im afraid most of the jockeyship is dire,races are poorly paced and to the eye it looks damn right dangerous, like you my great love is NH ,however, Germany is not the place!
Oh sure, I’m aware that there were only around 60-odd jumps races in Germany last year, plus about half that total again programmed in but not actually run in the end (through bad weather, no runners declared, etc).
However, seeing as how my main interest is the jumps, I’m interested in comparing and contrasting the German equivalent at close hand howsoever possible. Might even try to squeeze an article or two out of it (a nation groans…
). A trawl through http://www.galopp-sport.de‘s search engine indicated there were a few meetings which had two jumps races on their cards in 2007 (mostly at Baden Baden and Bad Harzburg, I think), and I presume will try to again this coming year.Fig.1 a steeplechase at Bad Harzburg. Looks can be deceptive, of course, but the fences here only seem to have about as much substance to them as Ludlow’s (i.e. not much). Hmm, wonder if there is an equivalent phrase in the Niedersachsen dialect for “Tricky Trevor”?
And yes, the Seejagdrennen are something very different indeed (see below), albeit not something entirely alien to Britain. I need to double-check in Chris Pitt’s majestic tome, but I think it was Totnes racecourse that used to oblige horses to plod / swim through the River Dart in steeplechases early last century.
Fig.2 what puts the “See” in Seejagdrennen;
Jeremy
(graysonscolumn)Jeremy Grayson. Son of immigrant. Adoptive father of two. Metadata librarian. Freelance point-to-point / horse racing writer, analyst and commentator wonk. Loves music, buses, cats, the BBC Micro, ale. Advocate of CBT, PACE and therapeutic parenting. Aspergers.
Nice pics Jeremy, and the last one is of a ‘Seejadgrennen’ I didn’t mention – this is Quackenbruck, not too far from Osnabruck. Unfortnately (I don’t know why they do this) their ‘Seejadgrennen’ is usually held on the first Sunday in September – the same day as the Grosser Preis von Baden!! Pity really – this race gets basically no coverage in the German media despite prize money of EUR 10,000 – might not sound much by our standards, but this in a country where the most valuable steeple chase is worth EUR 20,000, so not too bad really.
Darren – AngloGerman
). A trawl through 
- You must be logged in to reply to this topic.