Seven Days: A Tale of Two Derbys

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times. In Hamburg, a full field of 20 lined up for the Deutsches Derby, with runners from Britain and Ireland, and 11 different stables represented. On the Curragh, however, even with more than double the prize-money to the winner than in Germany after an extra €250,000 had been added to the fund, just nine runners went to post for the Irish Derby and only eight returned. There were no overseas visitors and the runners hailed from just five stables.

An otherwise hugely entertaining weekend of racing at Ireland's HQ was blighted by tragedy in the feature race won by Auguste Rodin (Ire) (Deep Impact {Jpn}) in a far less convincing manner than his previous sweeping victory.

Epsom can take its toll on young three-year-olds. Auguste Rodin still did enough to win the Irish Derby from Adelaide River (Ire) (Australia {GB}), who could well be the horse to take out of the race. Like the winner, Sprewell (Ire) (Churchill {Ire}) and White Birch (GB) (Ulysses {Ire}) were caught up in the melee that ensued from the distressing fatal injury to San Antonio (Ire) ((Dubawi {Ire}), though neither looked to be going well enough to have made an impact. 

Auguste Rodin, with his blend of Japan's best bloodlines mingled with Ireland's best, so became the 100th Classic winner in Europe for Aidan O'Brien, who would still have achieved that extraordinary feat had any of the first three dropped out. The trainer had the clean sweep of the first four home, with his son Joseph's Up And Under (Fr) (Lope De Vega {Ire}) the closest challenger in fifth. 

With the Derby runner-up King Of Steel (Wootton Bassett {GB}) unfortunately swerving a rematch with Auguste Rodin in favour of Royal Ascot, the Irish Derby had still looked an intriguing prospect beforehand with three of the first four from Epsom meeting again. When it comes to upholding the Derby form, the right horse won, and it is very much hoped that Auguste Rodin goes on to achieve championship status. But it will also be interesting to track the progress of Adelaide River, who looked the one who has thrived since Epsom, where he finished eighth.

That day, the winner looked something very special indeed. In no way as physically imposing as King Of Steel (few Flat horses are), Auguste Rodin had the air of a horse just out for an easy breeze whereas he was in fact tanking down one of the most famously difficult courses in the world, extending his stride as he liked. He didn't offer up the same impression at the Curragh, but he now has two Derby victories on his ledger, and the key now will be what he can do from here. Ten furlongs has of course been mooted, and that should be well within his capabilities, but then again, so should stepping up in trip in time, even though that comes, wrongly, with its own future commercial dangers. 

'Over the Moon'

Auguste Rodin's sire Deep Impact was of course the bedrock of the Japanese stallion business for many years, with seven Tokyo Yushun (Japanese Derby) winners to his name since he won the race himself in 2005. A Triple Crown winner (though Japan's version of the 2,000 Guineas, the Satsuki Sho, is run over 2,000m), he also won the GI Tenno Sho Spring over two miles as a four-year-old.

Japan is a nation in which stamina of the highest class is still as much revered as it is in Germany, where on Sunday the 2014 Deutsches Derby winner Sea The Moon was represented by his first winner of the German Classic in Fantastic Moon (Ger). Sea The Moon may have slipped his leash when it came to standing in his native country but the son of Sea The Stars (Ire) still plays a very active role in results there despite standing in England at Lanwades Stud.

Over the weekend in Hamburg, he was also represented by the G2 Grosser Hansa-Preis winner Assistent (Ger) and G3 Brummerhofer Stuten-Meile winner Muskoka (Ger), while another daughter, Kassada (Ger), was only just touched off by Princess Zelda (For) (Zarak {Fr}) in the G3 Hamburger Stutenpreis. Furthermore, his son Westminster Moon (Ire) won Sunday's Polish Derby.  Unsurprisingly, Sea The Moon is head of the sires' table in Germany.

His Derby winner Fantastic Moon was the champion two-year-old last season and was bred by Philipp and Marion Stauffenberg, whose profile is high outside Germany as leading pinhookers and consignors on the sales circuit. Breeding is at the heart of their operation, however, and in many ways Fantastic Moon represents matters of the heart as his third dam, Fraulein Tobin (J O Tobin), was bought by the Stauffenbergs 30 years ago, not long after they became a couple.

By Monday afternoon, Philipp Stauffenberg's voice was still raw with the emotion of Sunday's result when speaking to the TDN.

He said, “Breeding a Derby winner is absolutely sensational, and we are over the moon, which is fitting. We have to value these days and enjoy that success because we all know that we don't have many of these days.

“This traces back to Fraulein Tobin, who was the start of Marion and myself, so that's really the icing on the cake. He's not just a Derby winner, but a Derby winner from our breeding family which goes right back.”

Along with Fantastic Moon's dam, Frangipani (Ger) (Jukebox Jury {Ire}), the Stauffenbergs retained her unraced half-sister by Harzand (Ire). They also bought into another branch of the family with the purchase of Fraulein Tobin's granddaughter Relevant (Ire) (So You Think {NZ}), who won in their colours in England and is now the dam of French winner Rain (Ger), who is also by Sea The Moon.

“We are lucky that at the moment we have three young mares from that family,” Stauffenberg continued. 

“We try to balance out the commercial side to survive, and that gets more difficult every year. Unusually among our homebreds, Fantastic Moon is eligible for the German premiums. We sold the horse for €49,000 but in winning the German Derby he earned another €117,000 in breeders' premiums.”

The breeder is full of praise for Fantastic Moon's young trainer Sarah Steinberg, who has fewer than 30 horses in her Munich stable but last year was represented by her first Group 1 winner in Mendocino (Ger) (Adlerflug {Ger}), swiftly followed by her first Derby winner.

“She is such a good horsewoman,” he said. “If she has a good one, she will produce it, and we all know that in some of these big yards these horses are lost and don't always achieve what they are able to do. In smaller yards, they really appreciate the horse they have rather than it just being a numbers game.”

Frangipani is now in foal to Sea The Moon's sire Sea The Stars and she has a Starspangledbanner (Aus) two-year-old filly to represent her, while the Stauffenbergs are currently deliberating whether to keep her yearling filly by Masar (Ire).

It is not only the female side of Fantastic Moon's family with which Stauffenberg has an affinity as he was responsible for buying Sea The Moon's granddam Sacarina (GB) (Old Vic {GB}) as a foundation mare for Gestut Karlshof. That, too, was a job well done, as among her offspring are the Deutsches Derby winners Samum (Ger) and Schiaparelli (Ger) and the Preis der Diana winner Salve Regina (Ger). 

More satisfying, however, was breeding his own Derby winner. 

“This is really fulfilling a dream, to be able to breed a Group 1 winner. The commercial results, the sales results, we need those to survive, but the aim is always to breed a top-class horse, and that can't be beaten,” he said. 

“Jukebox Jury was a very good racehorse and he was a stallion we could afford to use, and now his daughter has bred a Derby winner with her second foal. 

“It just shows that it can be done, even if you are not one of the superpowers. It should encourage breeders to use proven, good horses. There is such a focus on breeding precocious sprinters, but the demand for the staying horse is still there, so it is important not to lose the angle of being able to do that.”

🏆IDEE 154. Deutsches Derby (G1)
2.400 m – 650.000 EUR – for 3yo mares and colts
🇩🇪 Hamburg

Fantastic Moon (GER)
(3C Sea The Moon – Frangipani, by Jukebox Jury)
J :Rene Piechulek
T :Sarah Steinberg
O :Liberty Racing 2021
🥈Mr Hollywood (Iquitos)
🥉Weracruz (Cracksman) pic.twitter.com/59qKhI1o4l

— 𝙒𝙤𝙧𝙡𝙙𝙍𝙖𝙘𝙞𝙣𝙜 (@WorldRacing1) July 2, 2023

Way To Go

There has been plenty of notable success for horses bred on the Fastnet Rock (Aus)-Galileo (Ire) cross, but few can have been bought so inexpensively as subsequent Group 1 winner Via Sistina (Ire).

Now five, she was picked up for 5,000gns by Stephen Hillen as a yearling, and the backward-looking filly has since turned into quite the swan in the colours of the agent's wife Becky. Following two wins when trained by Hillen's old friend Joe Tuite, Via Sistina joined George Boughey's yard when Tuite stopped training last year, and her profile has continued to rise with three group victories in France, England and Ireland, culminating in Saturday's G1 Pretty Polly S.

Out of a half-sister to Group 1-winning sprinter Kingsgate Native (Ire) (Mujadil), Via Sistina was bred by Colin and Melba Bryce of Laundry Cottage Stud, another of whose star graduates, Wootton Bassett (GB), made his presence felt at the Curragh over the weekend.

The Coolmore sire was represented by a one-two in the G2 Railway S. for Bucanero Fuerte (GB) and Unquestionable (Fr). The winner's full-brother is the G1 Prix de l'Abbaye winner Wooded (Fr), who stands at Haras de Bouquetot. 

Bucanero Fuerte had previously finished third in the G2 Coventry S., behind the winner River Tiber (Ire), who was one of two group winners for Wootton Bassett at Royal Ascot, along with King Of Steel.

Mile to Manton

The stallion roster at Manton Park Stud will expand again in in the coming seasons, with Group 1-winning juvenile Dubai Mile (Ire) set to join the line-up at the conclusion of his racing career.

Bred by Lady O'Reilly's Skymarc Farm, the colt from the sole crop of Roaring Lion was bought Mark and Charlie Johnston for €20,000 at the Goffs Orby Sale and races in the colours of Ahmad Al Shaikh. The Dubaian owner has now sold a 50 per cent share of the colt to Martyn and Freddie Meade, who will take over his training in Manton before he joins their stallion barn, which already houses Aclaim (Ire) and Advertise (GB). 

Since winning the G1 Criterium de Saint-Cloud last October, Dubai Mile has run fifth in the 2,000 Guineas, ninth in the Derby and was fourth in the G2 King Edward VII S. at Royal Ascot.

Epsom Hero Dwyer Bows Out

The British weighing-room will be permanently without one of its most amusing members following the retirement of dual Classic-winning jockey Martin Dwyer.

The Liverpool-born rider has been off the track since March 2022 with a ligament injury to his knee and, after several bouts of surgery, has had to admit defeat in his attempt to return to the saddle. 

The 48-year-old has won all three Group 1s at Epsom, starting with the Oaks in 2003 aboard Will Farish's homebred Casual Look (Red Ransom) and followed three years later by his last-gasp Derby victory on Sir Percy (GB) (Mark Of Esteem {Ire}) for Anthony and Victoria Pakenham. The full set was completed in the Coronation Cup on Pyledriver (GB) (Harbour Watch {Ire}), trained by his father-in-law William Muir.

“It's tough because I'm not finishing on my terms,” Dwyer admitted when announcing his retirement on Racing TV. “I'd like to go out like Frankie [Dettori] and do a world tour, but I'd probably be at Wolverhampton and Southwell!”