Karlshof Straight to the Top with Fourth German Champion Breeder Title 

For the fourth time in its 33-year existence Gestut Karlshof has been named champion breeder in Germany for 2023.

The first title came in 2000, the year Samum (Ger) (Monsun {Ger}) won the G1 Deutsches Derby and set the ball rolling for what has become the stud's signature family. Samum's dam Sacarina (GB) (Old Vic {GB}) went on to produce, from repeat matings to Monsun, the G1 Preis der Diana winner Salve Regina (Ger), whose Classic success for Manfred and Edith Hellwig of Gestut Hony-Hof gave the Faust family of Karlshof the champion breeder title for a second time in 2002, and later another Deutsches Derby winner in Schiaparelli (Ger).

“We've been champion breeder in 2000, 2002, and 2008, then there was a gap of 15 years but we have the fourth one,” says Holger Faust, whose parents Bruno and Michaela founded Gestut Karlshof. “It was established in 1990, so it's not that old.”

He continues, “My parents are both from Frankfurt and, back in the day, the racetrack in Frankfurt, which is closed now, was quite popular with 20 to 30 meetings a year. That was how my father became involved with racing, and my mother was already from a family of breeders.”

The Classic lineage extends back through Michaela Faust's parents, who owned the 1980 Deutsches Derby winner Navarino (Ger), as well as his Deutsches St Leger-winning sire Madruzzo (Ger). Navarino also won the G2 Union-Rennen, the major Derby trial which was claimed last season by the Karlshof homebred Straight (Ger) (Zarak {Fr}). Later a close third behind Zagrey (Fr) (Zarak {Fr}) in the G1 Grosser Preis von Baden, Straight remains in training for his four-year-old season. He is a fourth-generation descendant of the aforementioned Sacarina through another of her Monsun daughters, Sahel (Ger). Yet another, Sanwa (Ger), is the dam of Sea The Moon (Ger).

“Straight is an exciting horse,” says Faust, who manages not just his family's horses in training but also those of Darius Racing. “He's getting ready for next year's campaign and I think he can be a very interesting horse for the grand prix races, not only in Germany.”

He continues, “I think that we have a pretty good team for next year. From the younger horses, I would mention the unbeaten Maigret, who is now three. He has done nothing wrong so far. He won his listed race like a walk in the park and I think he can improve. He's now heading to the German Guineas first and then we will see how the story continues.”

Maigret (Ger) is an important Classic contender for the stud as he is by the farm's reverse shuttle stallion Counterattack (Aus), a son of Redoute's Choice (Aus). Furthermore, his dam is by its former resident Dabirsim (Fr) and she has already produced the stakes-winning mare Mylady (Ger) (The Grey Gatsby {Ire}), who won a Group 3 in her native country before being transferred to Chad Brown in America and landing the GIII Very One S. at Gulfstream Park in the Karlshof colours. 

“We had two horses in training in America last year,” Faust notes. “There was Mylady, who just ran one time and after that, unfortunately, she got a lung infection. That's why she needed to be retired in the summer. We also had [Italian Group 3 winner] Atomic Blonde (Ger) who was placed three times in graded races and was then sold.”

Mylady is now back among the 33-strong broodmare band at the farm just south of Frankfurt, alongside her dam Minoris (Fr) and also several members of Sacarina's extended family.

“Sacarina got everything started for Karlshof,” Faust acknowledges. “And I think you can also say, looking back over the last 25 years or so, that this was one of the top three families when you consider Samun, Schiaparelli, Salve Regina, Sea the Moon, and so many black-type horses all over the world. Last year's Italian Derby winner, Goldenas, is also from the family. Right now we have four mares from that family and I would say that the most interesting of those mares is called Seductive (Ger) (Henrythenavigator). With her second foal, she already produced last year's Group 2 winner and German Derby favourite, Straight, so I think there's more to come from her.”

When wearing his other hat as manager to Darius Racing, Faust has been involved with two more Derby winners in his home country: Isfahan (Ger) and his son Sisfahan (Fr). Darius's principal Stefan Oschmann, who has been champion owner twice in Germany, also raced the five-time group winner Rubaiyat (Fr) (Areion {Ger}), who, like Isfahan, now stands at Gestut Ohlerweiherhof.

“Besides the stud, there are two things I am really passionate about. One is being Darius Racing's manager. I've done that now for more than 10 years. And I'm very proud that we have had two German Derby winners, and two stallions.

“The second thing is I'm also running HFTB Agency and I love doing that. I'm focused on exporting German racehorses and, if they are successful, it's always nice to follow the horses and to see them run at bigger tracks in front of more people.”

While the Karlshof team campaign plenty of their own horses, Faust also points to the stud's record at the sales. In the last eight years, Karlshof has sold 14 black-type winners, which equates to 13% of the horses sold. These include A Raving Beauty (Ger) (Mastercraftsman {Ire}), who won the GI First Lady S. and GI Just A Game S. for Chad Brown, and Group 3 winner Isfahani (Ger) (Isfahan {Ger}), who was runner-up in the G1 Preis der Diana. 

Faust nominates the latter's full-sister Isfand (Ger), trained by Henk Grewe, as a horse to follow in Germany in the coming season. He says, “She hasn't run yet but I do believe that she is a filly that could be entered for the German Oaks with a big chance.”

Karlshof's fellow champions in Germany for 2023 were Peter Schiergen, who won the trainers' title for the eighth time, while Andrash Starke was champion jockey. Liberty Racing, which campaigned Derby winner Fantastic Moon (Ger), took the owners' title. This represented the first time in just over two centuries of racing in Germany that the champion owner was a syndicate. 

 

The post Karlshof Straight to the Top with Fourth German Champion Breeder Title  appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.

Source of original post

Classic Winners On Course For Arc

The St Leger winner Continuous (Jpn) (Heart's Cry {Jpn}) remains on course to attempt an historic follow-up in the G1 Qatar Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe next Sunday. The colt, who also won the G2 Great Voltigeur S. on good to firm ground at York en route to his Classic triumph in much softer conditions, would need to be supplemented for the Arc on Wednesday at a cost of €120,000.

Speaking on Sunday afternoon, his trainer Aidan O'Brien told TDN, “The plan is for him to run in the Arc as long as everything remains well with him up to the supplementary stage. He appears to have come out of Doncaster very well and we don't feel that he is ground-dependent.”

Also heading towards Longchamp next weekend is the 2021 Deutsches Derby winner Sisfahan (Fr) (Isfahan {Ger}) following his late scratching from Sunday's G1 Preis von Europa over ground concerns.

Holger Faust, racing manager for Sisfahan's owner Darius Racing, said, “Due to the fact that the ground in Cologne has received more water in the last few days than was previously expected and is now stated as soft, Sisfahan was withdrawn this morning and is now scheduled to race next Sunday in the Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe. In Paris, as of today, the ground, the track and the expected fast pace of the race should suit him.”

Another Classic winner given a positive update ahead of next Sunday's big race is Juddmonte's Westover (GB) (Frankel {GB}), last season's Irish Derby winner, who later finished sixth in the Arc. Successful in this year's Grand Prix de Saint-Cloud before finishing a close second to Hukum (GB) (Sea The Stars {Ire}) in the King George VI and Queen Elizabeth S., the Ralph Beckett trainee has recently been given a racecourse gallop followed by a trip to the beach.

“Westover went to Salisbury last Friday and to Hayling Island beach this Friday and both exercises went well,” said Beckett.

“It suited him to just take the edge off him ahead of Longchamp and he's shown he can handle any ground between the extremes.”

It is expected to be a largely dry week in Paris, with the long-range forecast showing the possibility of some rain on Saturday morning. 

 

The post Classic Winners On Course For Arc appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.

Source of original post

Classic-Place Isfahani Passes Away

Darius Racing's Group 3 winner Isfahani (Ger) (Isfahan {Ger}–Identity {Ger}, by Manduro {Ger}), who was runner-up in the 2021 G1 Preis der Diana (German Oaks), died suddenly on Thursday. An autopsy is pending.

Dr. Stefan Oschmann's Racing Manager Holger Faust said in a statement, “Unfortunately we have to announce that Isfahani passed away suddenly and surprisingly today. We requested an autopsy to determine the exact cause of death. It's very sad, she was Dr. Oschmann's favorite horse.”

Bred by Gestut Karlshof, the chestnut filly was purchased by Faust for €36,000 out of the 2019 BBAG Yearling Sale. Sent to trainer Henk Grewe, she ran second-promoted to first-in the G3 Premio Guido Berardelli in Rome last November. Fourth in the G2 Derby Italiano there on May 23, the daughter of Identity ran fifth in Hamburg's G3 Mehl-Mulhens-Trophy on July 4 prior to her German Oaks second. Her final start was a third in the G2 T. von Zastrow Stutenpreis at Baden-Baden on Sept. 4.

“In the Italian Derby she lost an iron and ran hard, coming out of the race with an injury,” Faust added. “Trainer [Henk] Grewe said we will experience the real Isfahani in the Gran Preis Europa [on Sept. 26], that is not granted to her or us now, but we are grateful to have seen her in the Darius Racing colors on the racetrack.”

The third foal of her winning dam, Isfahani is from the same family as top-class gallopers Irian (Ger) (Tertullian), who won the G2 German 2000 Guineas and was placed at the highest level in Hong Kong, France and Singapore, and Group 3 winner and G1 Preis von Europa runner-up Ibicenco (Ger) (Shirocco {Ger}).

The post Classic-Place Isfahani Passes Away appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.

Source of original post

Ohlerweierhof Living Derby Dream With Isfahan

SANKT WENDEL, Germany–Among the current batch of second-crop stallions in Europe, only two thus far have sired a Group 1 winner. The all-conquering Mehmas (Ire), last season's record-breaking champion freshman, has two, while the other name on the list may be less familiar to those outside Germany.

Isafahan (Ger) (Lord Of England {Ger}), bred by his trainer Andreas Wohler, won the G1 Deutsches Derby of 2016, and five years later his first-crop Sisfahan (Fr), also chestnut and bearing the same green and pink colours of Darius Racing, emulated his father by taking the country's most prized race. 

For Dr Stefan Oschmann of Darius Racing, it was the best possible start to his stallion's career, for the same owner also has Isfahan's first group winner and G1 Preis der Diana runner-up Isfahani (Ger). But it was also a wonderful boost for the young husband-and-wife team of Timo Degel and Nastasja Volz-Degel at Gestut Ohlerweierhof, who not only stand the stallion but also broke in and pre-trained Sisfahan and Isfahani for Oschmann.

“For us this was the stuff of dreams,” says Timo Degel as he shows the imposing Isfahan and his stud-mate Tai Chi (Ger) (High Chaparral {Ire}) on a beautiful sunny morning at the stud just a handful of kilometres from the German border with France. Two hours to the south, Nastasja is already at BBAG Yearling Sale at Iffezheim to oversee Ohlerweierhof's draft of 14 youngsters raised both at their own farm and at another major German operation, Gestut Ebbesloh, which is one of their major clients, both for sales consignment and pre-training.

Like his wife, Degel is a former amateur rider, and he has taken to handling the stallions in their care with all the calm and patient assurance of a skilled horseman. In the surrounding 120 hectares of pasture graze mares and foals, while on a distant hillside above the rolling paddocks a small string of fledgling racehorses are put through their paces among the verdant peace and quiet afforded by the farm, which has been in Nastasja's family for generations.

“Some of the people from the village don't even realise we are here,” says Degel of the tucked-away operation. “They come out for a walk and suddenly realise there are horses everywhere.”

It hasn't always been Thoroughbreds on the Volz family farm. After the dairy cattle of Nastasja's grandfather came military and riding horses bred by her father, who later adopted a love of speedier equine genes and bought his first Thoroughbred mare in the 1980s. The farm continued as a private family concern until becoming a proper commercial entity and stallion farm under guidance of the current generation in 2017, the year that coincided with Isfahan's retirement to stud.

“Dr Oschmann bought around 30 mares for his stallion and that's when we stopped milking cows,” explains Degel, whose team broke in around 60 yearlings over the winter. “Both the stallions here are still owned by their racing owners but we look after them like they are our own.”

He continues, “My wife also has a training licence and so for our hobby we race four horses of our own, but our business is really the breeding and the pre-training. We do pre-training for a lot of big studs like Ebbesloh, Karlshof, and all the Darius Racing horses were here, so we had the Derby winner and the Oaks second here. You can see in both those horses a lot of their father–the same top line and good bone. We thought from the 19 by Isafahan we had in pre-training that they wouldn't be horses for the 2-year-old season but actually he had a good first season. From the last five or six years a lot of good horses have been in our hands so we are very proud.”

The sole yearling by Isfahan at the BBAG Sale on Friday has been withdrawn but Tai Chi is represented by four yearlings in the catalogue and had his name in lights recently when his 2-year-old son Arnis Master (Ger) won the valuable BBAG sales race at Cologne. Both Arnis Master and Sisfahan are out of mares by Kendargent (Fr), the latter having been bred by that Deauville-based stallion's owner and leading French breeder Guy Pariente.

Sisfahan's dam Kendalee (Fr) did not present the most promising page to promote her first offspring's merits on the Flat. She was herself a dual winner over hurdles in France, while her dam also won over jumps, as did her smart half-brother, the Grade 1-winning hurdler Beaumec De Houelle (Fr) (Martaline {GB}). Offered by Pariente's Haras de Colleville in Arqana's November Sale, the yearling colt who would become known as Sisfahan was bought by Oschmann's racing manager Holger Faust of HFTB Agency for €16,000.

Faust has an even closer link to Isfahani as she was bred by his parents Bruno and Michaela, the notably good breeders and owners of Gestut Karlshof. Moreover, he selected Isfahan for Darius Racing for €35,000 at the BBAG Yearling Sale of 2014, bringing his tally to two Derby winners bought for Oschmann for just €51,000.

This weekend, during the culmination of Baden-Baden's major racing festival, Isfahani and Sisfahan, both under the care of champion trainer Henk Grewe, will be given the chance to take another step forward from their Classic engagements. On Saturday, Isfahani lines up for the G2 T von Zastrow Stutenpreis, while Isfahan is entered for Sunday's G1 Grosser Preis von Baden.

“It's just perfect at the end of the day that he has had some success,” says Faust of Isfahan, who covered 92 mares in his first year but dropped to around 35 for his third crop, which are now yearlings. That number rose again in 2021 to 62.

“We bought mares for him, put them in foal and put them back in the sale to try to give people a chance, but nobody wanted Isfahan and lots of the mares were sold to go abroad. Not that many of Isfahan's first crop ended up in Germany–only about 22–but Isfahani, Sisfahan and Anoush (Ger) have ended up as really good horses.”

Looking ahead to the weekend, he added, “Sisfahan feels good and looks good and we are quite confident for Sunday, but he is taking on some very good horses. Isfahani has been quite unlucky, which sounds like a strange thing to say about a filly who won a group race in the stewards' room on debut. But when she went back to Italy for the Derby she lost a shoe at the start and was then struck into during the race but she still ran fourth.”

He continued, “In the Preis der Diana we were very happy with her second place. I think she will start favourite on Saturday and she should have a very good chance.

We go step by step. I hope Saturday and Sunday work out for us and then we may send them to England or France, but first we have to do our homework.”

The post Ohlerweierhof Living Derby Dream With Isfahan appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.

Source of original post

Verified by MonsterInsights