Tag: Top News Europe

Former German Champion Jockey Filip Minarik Dies at 48

Filip Minarik, the former four-time champion jockey in Germany, died on Monday at the age of 48.

Born in the Czech Republic, Minarik rode in Germany from 1992 and by the time of his enforced retirement following a race fall in July 2020 had posted 1,669 wins in the country that had become his second home. He was champion jockey in 2005, 2011, 2016 and 2017, and rode 14 Group 1 winners during that time, including four victories in each of the G1 Grosser Preis von Baden and G1 Grosser Preis von Bayern.

As well as riding in France and Japan, he captained the winning European team in the Shergar Cup of 2019 when riding Stone Of Destiny (GB) to victory at Ascot for Andrew Balding. 

The following year, Minarik was seriously injured in a race fall at Mannheim and spent four weeks in an induced coma after being hospitalised with head injuries and a broken leg and ankle. He was eventually released from hospital in November 2020 but the extent of his brain injury meant he was unable to resume his career in the saddle.

Daniel Krüger, managing director of Deutscher Galopp, said, “With Filip Minarik we are losing a valued colleague and true friend who loved horse racing since he was a child. I am shocked and deeply saddened.”

Minarik is survived by his wife Katja and daughter Finja.

Speaking to Germany's Galopponline website, Katja Minarik said, “We fought so hard, but in the end we lost the battle against the ever-increasing depression. We need time to realise and process what has happened.”

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Irish 2,000 Guineas Winner Native Trail To Stand At Kildangan Stud

Irish 2,000 Guineas winner and unbeaten European Champion Two-Year-Old Native Trail (GB) (Oasis Dream {GB}) will stand at Kildangan Stud for 2024. 

Trained by Charlie Appleby, Native Trail carried the Godolphin blue throughout his career, which featured a stellar unbeaten juvenile campaign in 2021 which culminated with spellbinding performances in the G1 Goffs Vincent O'Brien S at the Curragh followed by the G1 Dewhurst S. at Newmarket. 

After landing the G3 Craven S. on his seasonal return at three, he found only stablemate Coroebus (Ire) (Dubawi {Ire}) too tough in the 2,000 Guineas, but made the Classic breakthrough in the Irish equivalent. 

Sam Bullard, Darley's director of stallions, commented, “What a horse. He never failed to take the eye, and when you watch those big wins of his, across two demanding seasons, it's very impressive.”

He added, “We are privileged to be standing a champion like him at Kildangan Stud. It's a while since our first Champion Two-Year-Old who went on to win a Classic retired to stud at Kildangan; that horse was Shamardal, and who's to say Native Trail won't do just as well?”

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‘He’s Been Fantastic’ – Muir Brings Curtain Down On Pyledriver’s Career

Dual Group 1 winner Pyledriver (GB) (Harbour Watch {Ire}), who won over £2 million in prize-money and took his trainers William Muir and Chris Grassick to some of the top races around the world, has been retired. 

Pyledriver suffered a setback ahead of an intended appearance at Kempton on Saturday leaving Muir with a straightforward decision to retire his horse of a lifetime.

Winner of the 2021 Coronation Cup at Epsom and last year's King George at Ascot, the six-year-old had been preparing for a possible tilt at the Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe but his joint-trainer says now is the right time to retire the classy performer.

“He worked on Saturday and to be honest he was sensational. He's never a horse we've galloped off the bridle and done anything stupid with, but it was just the way he did it, the way he moved, the way he looked and he marched off the gallops like a lion,” Muir said on Tuesday.

“I actually said to the owners 'you've just seen your next winner' and he was fine 90 per cent of the way home, but when he got back to the yard he was just a little bit sore in the same place we first got the suspensory injury before.

“I called my vet and he said he'd just tweaked it and had a bit of inflammation round it and he was really sore to touch it, but like Pyledriver does on Sunday morning he was 100 per cent sound and bucking and kicking.

“We had him on the walker on Sunday and cantered him on Monday and the vet came back and looked at him and couldn't believe it.

“We could run him on Saturday and he might win, but the horse has done so much for us and I just feel if I ran him and he tweaked it there's a good chance he could do some damage, or like all of us if you've got a little niggle somewhere do you put more weight somewhere else and cause a problem?”

Muir added, “This horse has been fantastic to all of us, to the owners, to me, to the yard and to the jockeys that have ridden him and he doesn't deserve anything to go wrong, so I think it's the right time.

“He's been a fantastic servant, but it isn't just him. I'd be the same if this was a small-time runner at Southwell on a Saturday night. It's just the case that I'm in this game because I love animals, I've worked with horses all my life and we've got to do what's right. My mind and my heart is telling me it's the right thing to do at this time.”

The post ‘He’s Been Fantastic’ – Muir Brings Curtain Down On Pyledriver’s Career appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.

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Tattersalls Somerville Looking to Continue Upward Curve 

NEWMARKET, UK–The third European yearling sale within eight days gets underway as Tattersalls pulls the curtain up on its yearling season with its increasingly popular Somerville Sale. 

It will be a frenetic day at Park Paddocks on Tuesday with more than 300 horses to go through the ring, but the sale is riding high on the back of some decent results, with Bradsell (GB) (Tasleet {GB}), the star of the inaugural edition in 2021, adding the G1 King's Stand S. to his previous Royal Ascot success in the G2 Coventry S. for Archie Watson and Victorious Racing.

In recent weeks, last year's graduates Indian Run (Ire) (Sioux Nation) and Relief Rally (Ire) (Kodiac {GB}) landed the G3 Acomb S. and G2 Lowther S. at York, while Anisette (GB) (Awtaad {Ire}) won the GI Del Mar Oaks. 

It took a total of 206,000gns to buy these four horses, a figure that was barely two-thirds of the average price of a yearling at Tattersalls October Book 1 last year, so it is easy to see why this auction, which has taken a strong lead from the Doncaster playbook of precocity and speed, is catching on. The emphasis on youth also extends to the marketing for this sale, with its snappy video featuring the younger members of the Tattersalls team.

https://twitter.com/Tattersalls1766/status/1698353656494448861?s=20

One of those, auctioneer Matt Hall, was looking particularly dapper in a jaunty Panama as he inspected the yearlings he will be selling on Tuesday, but he played down his leading role in the sale. “It's been very busy over the last few days, with plenty of footfall, so let's hope that transfers to the ring,” was all he could be drawn on as he conferred with Jenny Norris. 

There's been a good name game taking place in the Norris Bloodstock draft for the filly by Harry Angel (Ire) out of Meghan Sparkle (Ire) [Lot 213]. Netflix (GB) has been suggested, along with the less flattering Ginge N Whinge (GB), which would work better if she was a chestnut. Either way, the neat bay is a smart and racy-looking filly, quite typical of the kind on offer here this week.

On Monday morning, as British politics limped back into action after the summer recess, Angela Rayner was named Shadow Levelling Up Minister in a Labour reshuffle. I've no idea what that actually means, but there is a good deal of levelling up underway at Tattersalls on 'Catholic Hill' which will presumably be ready for its unveiling at the October Sale. In the meantime, it's a little discombobulating trying to find some consignors away from their usual spot, but plenty were enjoying the shade of the trees in the Highflyer paddocks on a roasting hot September day.

There are unconfirmed rumours that the July Sale ice-cream man could make a return to Park Paddocks on Tuesday, and even bigger rumours about the money being offered by various stallion farms from around the world for Havana Grey (GB). The rising star of Whitsbury Manor Stud claimed his Group 1 in the Flying Five on Irish Champions Weekend five years ago, and since then both he and his offspring have continued to fly. From £8,000 to £18,500 his fee has already climbed, and TDN's Brian Sheerin selflessly stayed up into the wee small hours the other night in Doncaster specifically to listen to the gossip on where his price will be pitched next year. 

It is unclear whether or not Brian fell asleep in the bar of the Earl of Doncaster, but we still don't know the magic number. We just hope that Havana Grey stays in England. Sixteen of his yearlings are in the Somerville Sale, including two from his breeder Mickley Stud, who sold Havana Grey as a foal at Tattersalls back in 2015.

From an opening average of 21,345gns and median of 16,250gns for the first Somerville Sale as the world started to right itself after the Covid pandemic, those figures climbed significantly to 30,377gns and 26,000gns last year. It would be folly to expect such extravagant percentage gains this time around, but the sale has taken root. And there have been enough people in action during the inspection days of Sunday and Monday for plenty of consignors to be feeling quietly confident as they tucked into their burgers at the pre-sale barbecue on Monday night. 

Selling begins at 9.30am, and a 12-hour session is likely, but it makes sense to have kept this relative newcomer to the sales scene to its one-day boutique format. 

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