Forum Replies Created
- Posts
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
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
GC – I know that the owner has sent Christian a text from the US saying how pleased they were with the way Swordsman ran. I’m not sure of the plans at the moment – basically we were happy to run him at 2 miles, but after his 3rd place a couple of weeks back, Jamie Moore reckoned we should try him over further, so we did. Who knows – he might even get 3 miles! Not bad for a horse that once ran in the Man O’ War stakes at Belmont Park!!
Tony – You’re 99 per cent right – green with black and white checks – but it’s Galopp Club Deutschland (based in Koeln though!!). I was actually wearing the badge at Huntingdon on Saturday, and I wear it whenever I’m at a UK racecourse. Basically, yes we used to have horses with Mario Hofer, but last year, something happened (long story, ended up in the courts!!), and we moved our two horses (Mr. Muradian and Steinle) to Sascha Smrczek and Dr. Andreas Bolte respectively. We won’t be having horses with Mario Hofer again.
This season, we had Sworn Mum with Peter Rau, and the utterly fantastic Weststern, trained by Christian. In 10 races, Weststern won 4 (including a EUR 20,000 Ausgleich I at Bad Harzburg), was second 4 times, and in his last two races, he finished 6th and 8th when he was probably over the top. What we did was lease the two horses from their owners (due to what happened with Hofer – we are reluctant to buy any more horses) , and I expect this is the agreement we will have again for 2008.
Weststern and Sworn Mum have been sold, but we have a nice unraced Soviet Star colt with Christian – I think he’ll need a bit of time, but we’re hoping to run him on the all weather in Dortmund in January just to start things off.
Darren – Anglo German
PS: Tony – You’ve not got Arc de Triomphe have you??
Thank you Colin! Yes, only joined on Saturday after achieving a bit of a dream – collecting the winners trophy after Swordsman won at Huntingdon. Our syndicate now only has horses with Christian von der Recke, but Swordsman isn’t ours – I was just representing the owners there as they lve in the US. Yes, if any of you were at Huntingdon and saw the trophy presentation, I was the terrified ‘rabbit in the headlights’ chap – I didn’t realise there would be so many photographers, I assumed Paris Hilton must have been standing behind me!!!
Darren – AngloGerman
PS: If anyone from Huntingdon Racecourse is on this forum, just to say thank you for a wonderful day, some of the friendliest people I’ve ever met, fantastic hospitality – superb!! Just a shame only 2 horses turned up for the big one really.
I have to say, this thread kind of brought a tear to my eye. For most of you, the fact that a German trained horse called Sworn Mum finished second to Alma Mater at 64-1 might be insignificant. Not for me – I part owned her until last month!!!
Just to give you an idea about form, we always thought Sworn Mum was better on soft ground – her only win came on heavy ground at Hamburg in June, and she ran quite well when fifth in a EUR 50,000 race at Baden-Baden in August, when the going was too quick for her. We generally campaigned her over 1 1/2 miles (or 2400 metres as we call it!!), but we thought she might do better over further. She was trained by Peter Rau (of Saddex fame), but she was bought at the Baden-Baden auction last month, and her new owners have moved her to Werner Baltromeis yard – he of Le Miracle. Hmmm….he might have another class stayer on his hands!!
