It was only in 1993 that the Deutsches Derby, Germany’s Derby run at Hamburg racecourse, was opened up to foreign-bred runners but, despite no shortage of overseas challengers since then, there has yet to be a non-German-bred winner.
The English Derby at Epsom Downs, first run in 1779, was the original Derby, while, in the 19th century, as racing in other countries became more professional, many other “Derbys” came into existence.
The Prix du Jockey Club, the French Derby, was first run in 1866, three years before the Irish Derby was established, while in 1868 the inaugural Austrian Derby took place.
Germany’s Derby, first held in 1869, was the next in line, followed by America’s Kentucky Derby (1875), the Scandinavian Derby in Denmark (1878), the Italian Derby (1884) and the Swedish Derby (1918).
The first German Derby, at Hamburg’s Horn racecourse just outside the city, was on a bright summer’s day on July 13, 1869, when Investment - ridden by an Englishman named W Little - scored in the colours of 29-year-old Ulrich von Oertzen, despite losing six lengths at the start. The race was then known as the Norddeutsches Derby - the North German Derby.
Although there was an initial entry of 31, there were just five runners in that first German Derby, but a big crowd came to the course for what was to become an important social event in north Germany.
The Norddeutsches Derby became the Deutsches Derby in 1889, with that renewal going to Urambatyam.
Kaiser Wilhelm II attended the 1903 race, won by Bono Modo, and the Emperor was to become a regular visitor with his family in the years leading up to the First World War.
The smallest field in the race’s history was in 1905, when Patience beat just three opponents.
No owner has enjoyed more success in the race than the Gestut Schlenderhan, Germany’s oldest privately-owned stud, based at Bergheim near Cologne since 1870.
The von Ullmann family’s stud had a first German Derby success in 1908 with the aptly named Sieger (meaning winner) and the stud’s tally in the race stands at 17, the latest being Adlerflug in 2007.
There was a subdued air when Ariel carried the Schlenderhan colours to victory in the 1914 Derby as news filtered through to the course that the Archduke Franz Ferdinand had been assassinated in Sarajevo. The First World War began weeks later.
Gestut Schlenderhan enjoyed a golden period between 1935 and 1943 when winning six of the nine renewals, including with the great filly Schwarzgold in 1940, while there was further success in 1949 with another filly, Asterblute who had earlier won the German 1,000 Guineas and German Oaks.
Accordingly, the race’s most successful trainer is Gestut Schlenderhan’s handler George Arnull, who enjoyed nine successes between 1927 and 1949.
The Second World War inevitably impacted on the Derby (there was no renewal in 1945) and the race was run at a number of different venues from 1943 to 1947, including Hoppegarten and Munich.
Although successes were common for fillies before the War, shock victor Lustige in 1955 was the last member of her sex to score until Borgia won under Frenchman Olivier Peslier in 1997.
Overseas horses may not have been allowed to run until recently in the German Derby, but that ban did not extend to riders. A youthful Lester Piggott won the 1957 race on Orsini and he went on to score onboard Fanfar (1963) and Luciano (1967).
Hein Bollow saddled Marduk to win the 1974 running and, by the time he retired in 1988, the former 11-time German champion jockey who had ridden four Deutsches Derby winners, held the unique record of having both trained and ridden the winners of all five German Classics.
But the most successful rider in the race’s history was Gerhard Streit, triumphant eight times between 1938 and 1961.
The 1977 renewal boasted the biggest-ever field when 24 runners took part, with Surumu - who went on to sire 1985 winner Acatenango - gaining glory for the Jacobs family’s Gestut Fahrhof.
The 1981 German 2,000 Guineas winner Orofino might not have faced the greatest set of rivals in that year’s German Derby, but his winning margin of just under 13 lengths was almost unheard of in a Classic despite the soft ground.
The standard of German racing and bloodstock has become more appreciated internationally in the last two and a half decades, first through the outstanding 1985 German Derby winner Acatenango.
The Surumu colt, from the stable of 31-time champion trainer Heinz Jentzsch, who sent out eight German Derby winners, not only went on to carry all before him in Germany, but also further afield.
He was sent over to France to land the 1986 Group One Grand Prix de Saint-Cloud and finished a creditable third behind Triptych in the Group One Coronation Cup on his only visit to Britain.
Acatenango retired to his breeder’s Gestut Fahrhof in 1988 with seven Group One successes to his name and three German Horse of the Year titles. He shared the record of 13 wins in European Pattern races with Brigadier Gerard and Ardross.
Acatenango’s son Lando, who scored at Hamburg in 1993, further promoted German bloodlines overseas when seeing off an international line-up in the 1995 Japan Cup.
Acatenango’s outstanding daughter Borgia beat 18 colts in the 1997 German Derby. She crowned her career with a victory in the Hong Kong Vase at Sha Tin, having finished third to Peintre Celebre in the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe, and only lost out by three quarters of a length to Chief Bearhart in the Breeders’ Cup Turf at Hollywood Park.
Boreal, the 2001 German Derby winner, home-bred by Gestut Ammerland, progressed to land the following year’s Coronation Cup at Epsom and showed that the Deutsches Derby had come a long way since five runners went to post for that first running on a sunny summer’s day in 1869.
The 2003 second Monsun progressed to be the most expensive stallion ever to stand in Germany and his best runner to date has been the brilliant Manduro.
The Schutz family has enjoyed great success in recent years. The late Bruno Schutz trained four winners of the German Derby - Lebos (1987), Karloff (1990), Temporal (1991) and Borgia (1997) - while his son Andreas, now Hong Kong-based, has already bettered that score with Robertico (1998), Samum (2000), Next Desert (2002), Dai Jin (2003) and Shirocco (2004).
The 2005 renewal was an all-German affair and went the way of Nicaron, trained by 72 year-old Horst Steinmetz, who was celebrating his first Group One winner after 40 years with a licence. Frenchman Davy Bonilla was in the saddle and guided the son of Acatenango to a length and a half success.
Schiaparelli ensured that the prize remained at home in 2006, scoring by three quarters of a length from Dickens for trainer Peter Schiergen, who had sent out Boreal to land the prize five years earlier. The son of Monsun subsequently joined Godolphin and landed his fifth career Group One in the Gran Premio del Jockey Club e Coppa d’Oro in 2009.
Owner Franz Gunther von Gaetner, racing under the banner of Stall Blankenese, was collecting his second Deutsches Derby with Schiaparelli, having also scored with Schiaparelli’s full brother Samum in 2000. A leading figure in German racing, Gunther von Gaetner celebrated his third success in the Classic with Kamsin in 2008, shortly before his death in the November of the same year.
In 2007, Alderflug became the 17th winner of the race for Gestut Schlenderhan, whose owner Baroness Karin von Ullmann died in June, 2009. She was the great grand-daughter of Eduard von Oppenheim, who founded the stud in 1869. The late Baroness’s son, Baron Georg von Ullmann, continues the family’s racing tradition.
The Ullmanns made it 18 victories when Gestut Schlenderhan’s Wiener Waltzer, trained by Jens Hirschberger, defeated Soldino by a length and a quarter under Fredrik Johansen in 2009. It was Hirschberger’s second triumph in the race, following on from Alderflug.
A determined Buzzword captured the 2010 event by one and a quarter lengths for Godolphin’s first-season trainer Mahmood Al Zarooni. Royston Ffrench produced the Pivotal colt with a powerful challenge in the straight to reel in leading domestic hope Zazou. Buzzword became the first overseas winner of the Deutsches Derby since the race was first opened to foreign competition in 1993.