German racing

   Germany's unbeaten Horse of the Year Rubaiyat (Fr) (Areion {Ger}) went postward as the 3-10 favourite for his eagerly awaited seasonal return in Sunday's G3 Dr Busch-Memorial at Berlin's Hoppegarten venue and, while stablemate Wonderful Moon (Ger) (Sea The Moon {Ger}) reigned supreme trialling for Hamburg's July 12 G1 Deutsches Derby in Friday's G3 Cologne Classic, he was more workmanlike maintaining his perfect record in this dress rehearsal for Cologne's June 1 G2 German 2000 Guineas.    Darius Racing's bay swept through a juvenile campaign which began with an...

An ambitious concept to counter the ongoing disruption caused to Germany's racing finances by the COVID-19 lockdown, initiated by entrepreneur and racehorse owner Lars-Wilhelm Baumgarten along with Guido Schmitt and Christian Sundermann, has succeeded in its objective. The idea is based on popular television entertainment show "Wetten, dass..?", which subjected contestants to viewer-determined forfeits if unable to complete bizarre tasks. In one case, a blindfolded farmer successfully recognized his cows by the sound they made while chewing apples. However, in this sporting scenario, the trio declared they'd find 100 people...

Deutscher Galopp has announced that no runners trained outside Germany will be allowed to race in the country before the end of May. German racing is set to resume behind closed doors on Monday, May 4 at Dortmund. The first Pattern races, the G2 Carl Jespers Preis and the G3 Cologne Classic, will be held the following Friday in Cologne. British-based trainer Karl Burke had been hoping to send a runner for each of those contests but, following an announcement by the German racing authority on Wednesday, he will not...

By Sean Cronin & Christa Riebel Germany's juvenile contingent of 2019 was led with distinction by G1 Criterium International hero Alson (Ger) (Areion {Ger}), who has since transferred stables from Jean-Pierre Carvalho to Andre Fabre; and the Henk Grewe-trained MGSW domestic Horse of the Year Rubaiyat (Fr) (Areion {Ger}), whose ambitions were detailed in these columns last week. With the country now set to gain a European foothold when racing resumes on May 1, a positive focus turns to programming and the usually unwelcome headaches associated with formulating plans for...

Dortmund Racecourse will hold the first German race meeting since the coronavirus halted racing in that country earlier this year, Galopponline.de reported on Thursday. Racing was originally scheduled to resume on May 1, but government regulations have prevented three meetings-Hannover (May 1), Mannheim (May 2) and Cologne (May 3) from going forward. It is hoped they will be rescheduled beginning on May 5th. "We have worked a lot in the past few days and have been in constant contact with governments, local authorities and the racecourses since then, Michael Vesper,...

The German racing authority Deutscher Galopp has released a revised racing programme for the sport to begin behind closed doors from Friday, May 1 at Hannover. At present the dates have been announced for one race meeting each day to June 15, and they include the first German Classics, the G2 Mehl Mulhens-Rennen (2000 Guineas), which will be run at Cologne on Monday, June 1, followed by the G2 German 1000 Guineas at Dusseldorf on Sunday, June 7, the same day as the Listed Derby Trial. During that period racing...