In the end it was three lengths that made the difference: Nations Pride won the Grand Dallmayr Prize on Sunday in front of almost 15,000 spectators. In the Group 1 race on the racecourse in Munich-Riem, the stallion from Ireland confirmed his role as a favorite and kept the distance to the second-placed Fantastic Moon throughout the race. By winning the seventh race of the day, the four-year-old stallion has already earned a total of more than two million euros; the Great Dallmayr Prize was worth 155,000 euros in prize money.
Second-placed Fantastic Moon, on the other hand, was unable to repeat his success at the German Derby in Hamburg, which he won just under four weeks ago. Fantastic Moon is trained by Sarah Steinberg from Munich just a few hundred meters from the racecourse and was also ridden by Munich jockey Rene Piechulek on Sunday. Before the race, the derby winner was described in the international press as “untapped”, which in riding jargon is used to describe particularly promising talents: untapped, i.e. unopened, serves as a comparison with a ketchup bottle, from which a lot of content can come out at once, as soon as you press for the first time after opening. The stallion could not live up to these hopes at his home race in Munich-Riem.
Christian Sundermann, co-founder of the joint racing team “Liberty Racing”, which also owns Fantastic Moon, was nevertheless satisfied with the outcome of the race: “We lost against a horse that has already won prizes all over the world and Fantastic Moon has the best rating was,” said the 57-year-old after the race. “The competition today was just extremely strong. And if you lose, then against this horse.” The French stallion Skalleti came in third, and Sammarco, trained by Peter Schiergen and winning the German Derby last year and shortly thereafter the Dallmayr Prize, came in fourth.
These placements could solve a problem for Riem: the Great Dallmayr Prize will most likely retain its Group 1 status. This classification only exists for seven races throughout Germany, two of which have been taking place on the racecourse in Munich-Riem for years. The Group 1 category designates the highest quality class in horse racing: “This is the Champions League of equestrian sports. If you like, the Champions League finals take place here in Munich-Riem regularly,” said Sundermann.
The quality requirements of the EPC are very likely to be met
With Nations Pride and Fantastic Moon being the horses that took the first two places at the Grand Dallmayr Prize that had previously been classified as the highest, the race now very likely meets the required quality standards. These are checked by the European Pattern Committee (EPC). In a letter to the Münchener Rennverein (MRV) a few weeks ago, the committee complained that the level of the participating horses had not been high enough in recent years, which is why Group 1 status was at risk. This level can be read from the balancing weights that are assigned to the animals in advance. In theory, all horses would have to run at the same speed with their respective additional weight – if they were carrying this as compensation. The higher the weight, the higher the level of the horse.
For classification as a Group 1 race, the first three places must have an average handicap of 97.5 kilograms. “Nations Pride is listed at 99 kilos, if he wins again at the next race in Hong Kong he will probably end up at 101 or 102 kilos – then we would be off the hook anyway,” said Sascha Multerer, Secretary General of the MRV. But even if the stallion doesn’t win the race, it’s now likely that he’ll still be in Group 1 for the Dallmayr Prize. After all, all horses in the first three places are rated with high handicaps – and a successful course in the rest of the season could even increase these weights.
An end to classification as Group 1 races would have meant a major loss in the attractiveness of the Dallmayr Prize and Munich as a location for the German and international horse racing scene: “The fact that two out of seven Group 1 races take place here in Munich-Riem, is an important factor for the sponsors and the spectators,” says Multerer about the pending decision of the EPC. “We’ll get the decision in the middle of the week and we’ll know more. But I think we can be very optimistic.”
