Germany proudly welcomes the World Pool for the third Sunday in a row with three races from Hoppegarten supporting one of the jewels of the German racing calendar, the G1 Grosser Preis von Berlin (2400m).

Two classy operators travel to Berlin for this six-runner encounter – one from England and one from France – and both are unbeaten in a past venture to Hong Kong.

Rebel’s Romance won last year’s G1 Standard Chartered Champions & Chater Cup (2400m) whilst Junko’s Group 1-winning Sha Tin strike came in the 2023 LONGINES Hong Kong Vase (2400m).

Rebel’s Romance, who will be ridden by 19-year-old emerging talent Billy Loughnane for the first time, is a true international star. The Godolphin flagbearer is unbeaten in three German Group 1s, including in this race back in 2022, and the Charlie Appleby-trained 18-time winner looks set to start a warm favourite to further enhance his extraordinary record.

The Andre Fabre-trained Junko, a first-time ride for Rene Piechulek, has shown race-by-race improvement this year, with his latest third to two top-class opponents in the G1 Grand Prix de Saint-Cloud (2400m), representing further encouragement. His only previous start in Germany resulted in a runaway victory from the front in Munich’s G1 Preis von Bayern (2400m).

Of the German-trained runners, Nastaria (Jozef Bojko) is a durable and thoroughly likeable mare who has been supplemented into the field. The nine-time winner may have ground to find on ratings, but she always gives her best and, being all about stamina, is unlikely to be stalling in the closing stages.

Higher in the ratings is Narrativo, the mount of Adrie de Vries. Nothing went right when he was well fancied for last year’s G1 Deutsches Derby (2400m) in Hamburg, but he bounced back to finish second to Al Riffa in this race, and the Marcel Weiss-trained colt should again give a good account of himself back at Hoppegarten.

The Peter Schiergen-trained Cold Heart has improved nicely in two starts since leaving Brazil, latterly when a close third in last month’s G2 Grosser Hansa-Preis (2400m). The drying conditions are expected to be in his favour, and Andrasch Starke takes the ride.

The foreign brigade also looks strong in the Listed Fliegerpreis over Hoppegarten’s straight 1200m. They include the Archie Watson-trained Kylian (Luke Morris), already a Listed winner over this trip at Baden-Baden in June, and Humam, a front-running 1400m handicap winner at York in June. He has a first start for in-form Newmarket trainer Stuart Williams, with his go-to rider Marco Ghiani in the saddle.

Lamborghini BF is not only named to be fast but is a top Swedish sprinter with a consistent profile, whilst serious local contenders include Atlanta City and Zerostress – first and second in this last year – along with last-time-out winner Schutzenzauber and Dhitjari. The latter is a class-dropper having finished third in Cologne’s G2 German 2000 Guineas (1600m) in May. The hope is that sprinting will deliver further progress for Starke’s mount.