Top-class racing in Germany is usually reserved for a Sunday, but Munich is pulling out all the stops on Saturday (8 November) with five power-packed World Pool races, headlined by the G1 Grosser Preis von Bayern (2400m).
An international nine-runner field lines up for the final Group 1 contest of the European year, with soft ground expected. A trio of three-year-olds takes on six elders, with Tiffany the only mare among the males.
Trained by Sir Mark Prescott Bt and to be ridden as usual by Luke Morris, Tiffany was only caught in the shadows of the post in this race last year and, although training issues have restricted her to just one run since, that was a solid second in September’s G1 Preis von Europa (2400m) at Cologne. The classy and gutsy mare has a serious chance of finally bagging an elusive Group 1 in what may well be her last race.
On ratings, Convergent has a strong chance. Like Tiffany, he is trained in the UK, and the three-year-old could finalise another terrific season for his trainer Karl Burke, but this time without regular rider Clifford Lee, who was unfortunately injured in a non-racing incident.
Connections could hardly have found a better replacement than William Buick and now look to enhance an already highly profitable year for Convergent. He was denied by a short-head in the G1 Deutsches Derby (2400m) at Hamburg in July, before winning Leopardstown’s G3 Kilternan Stakes (2400m) and the G2 Prix du Conseil de Paris (2200m) at ParisLongchamp. If tactics from previous starts are maintained, Buick is likely to sit close to the speed before pouncing in the straight.
Junko won the Grosser Preis von Bayern in 2023 before landing Sha Tin’s G1 LONGINES Hong Kong Vase (2400m). His record since has been patchy, but Maxime Guyon’s mount will be respected from the legendary Chantilly stable of Andre Fabre.
The home team consists of four runners, of which Alleno (Rene Piechulek) and Lazio (Martin Seidl) should hold the best chances, while Rashford (Jack Mitchell) took his form to a new level when capturing Baden-Baden’s G3 Herbst Trophy (2400m) last month. But this shapes as a much tougher assignment.
The three handicaps on the programme contain full fields with traditionally fierce competition between horses trained in Munich versus the rest of Germany. Jutta Mayer, Erich Pils, Michael Figge and Werner Glanz all train in Munich, but trainers Henk Grewe, Andreas Suborics, Peter Schiergen and Yasmin Almenrader should be noted when they bring runners to the south of Germany, especially into handicap company.
The Grosser Preis von Bayern is carded as S2-4 and will be run at 10.40pm (Hong Kong time) on Saturday, 8 November.
