With a great fighting performance, the five-year-old assistant won the Grand Allianz Prize of Bavaria – the last Group I race in Europe this year. The internationally strong competition was the absolute highlight of a thrilling day of racing at the racecourse in Munich-Riem with several double winners and a tragic accident.
The Bavarian Grand Prix over 2,400m was endowed with 155,000 euros – 100,000 euros for the winning team – and for a long time it seemed that the victory would go to England: to the four-year-old mare Tiffany, who has already won three times in Germany. Her rider Luke Morris and her trainer Sir Marc Prescott had already won the Grand Allianz Prize of Bavaria two years ago with the mare Alpinista. But the five-year-old assistant, trained by Henk Grewe in Cologne, fought his way closer and closer to the mare on the inside under Thore Hammer-Hansen and in the end, as an outsider with a score of 13:4:1, he just managed to move ahead.
“He is such a fighter and my favorite horse. This is an absolute highlight of my career,” said the jockey, who also won the German Derby this year. Assistent is owned by the president of the Cologne Racing Club, Eckhart Sauren. The stallion is now ending his racing career and is to be used as a stud. “This was the crowning achievement in an impossible situation,” said the managing director of the Munich Racing Club, Sascha Multerer. “But Lordano also did well in fourth place.” The stallion, trained by Marcel Weiß in Mülheim, came in just behind the English guest Ancient Wisdom.
Next Mine highly superior on debut
Another Sauren horse, however, may have taken the first step towards a great career. The two-year-old Next Mine won the BBAG auction race over 1,600m with prize money of 52,000 euros with great superiority. “I am stunned,” was Sauren’s comment, and winning rider Hammer-Hansen was similarly amazed at the stallion’s impressive performance in his first start in life. The trainer is Waldemar Hickst in Cologne.
The auction race was run in memory of the recently deceased galloping official Christoph Freiherr von Gumppenberg. At his request, instead of flowers, the Munich racing club donated 2,000 euros to the jockey support fund, “to help those in the sport who need help,” said trainer Christian von der Recke.
The Grand Prix and the auction race were among the four races that were included in the Hong Kong Jockey Club’s World Pool and could therefore be seen and bet on in 26 countries. Unfortunately, a tragic accident occurred in the HKJC World Pool Handicap over 1,400m. The four-year-old mare Schwarz Blau, trained in Munich by Jutta Mayer, fell and her rider Tomas Roman had to be taken to hospital with a fracture. “Despite all the veterinary efforts – absolutely everything was tried – the mare had to be put down,” said managing director Multerer. “Unfortunately, this casts a shadow on what was otherwise such a successful race day.”
The winner of the race was the seven-year-old mare Picnic En Ville, trained by Janina Boysen. She also won the last race of the day with the five-year-old Icatu, the Allianz Animal Insurance Prize over 1,600m. Miguel Lopez was in the saddle both times. He knows the dangers of his sport but still loves it: “Although my last injury was very painful at times, I wanted to get back in the saddle to experience that feeling of speed again.”
Home win for Michael Figge
Multiple champion jockey Bauyrzhan Murzabayev was also able to celebrate two victories, winning at the start of the race day with the two-year-old Wonder Boy for trainer Peter Schiergen and was successful an hour later with the three-year-old Galvanize for Bohumil Nedorostek.
The most important handicap, the Prize of the Five Farms, a handicap I over 2,000m with prize money of 20,000 euros, was won by the four-year-old Lazzaro for the Dresden trainer Stefan Richter, with the rider being the Frenchman Theo Bachelot. There was also a Riemer home victory to celebrate: In the World Pool Handicap over 2,000m, Noreia’s Secondo, trained by Michael Figge, won, ridden by the trainee Elodie Palau Teruel.
