THE TRC publishes lists of the world’s most successful jockeys, trainers and stallions, updated every week and based mainly on Group 1 results and prize money won all over the world.

This week’s list has Frankie Dettori topping the jockeys’ table, followed by Japan-based Christophe Lemaire, then William Buick and Ryan Moore.

John Gosden heads the trainers’ list, followed by Charlie Appleby, Chad Brown and Aidan O´Brien, while the leading sire is Dubawi, and then Galileo and Sea The Stars.

Germany, which has only seven Group 1 races, and most of them with only relatively modest prize money, plays only a minor role here but the results of the past fortnight have certainly had an impact.

At Munich a fortnight ago, Charlie Appleby and William Buick teamed up to win the Grosser Dallmayr-Preis, while last Sunday it was the turn of John Gosden and Frankie Dettori, who took the Henkel Preis der Diana (German Oaks) with Miss Yoda, a German-bred daughter of Sea The Stars.

From the German point of view, this is rather depressing, as it seems that there are no real international stars currently in training in this country, while in the past decade we had two winners of the King George and one each of the Arc and the Melbourne Cup.

However, the most recent crops in Germany have been mainly below par, making these races relatively easy pickings; of the last eight Group 1 races to be run in this country, five have gone to British trainers, two to French and one to Hungary (!).

Certainly on the balance of her form Miss Yoda could not have been predicted as a potential Group 1 classic winner. Thanks to the generous sponsorship of Henkel (maker of Persil and other detergents and household goods,) the race still had its normal prize money of €500,000, making it worth almost as much as the Oaks at Epsom and the Irish Oaks combined.

There was a strong runner from Ireland, Jessica Harrington’s Silence Please, and two French contenders (one later scratched). All had in theory better form than Miss Yoda, whose best performance had been her victory in the Listed Lingfield Oaks Trial and on her latest start could only finish fourth (admittedly against decent colts) in a Newmarket Group 3. On handicap ratings, her 99 rating put her in 11th place in the field.

Brilliance

However, we had all reckoned without Frankie’s brilliance in the saddle and Gosden’s superb record in the world’s top races.

Miss Yoda was drawn one and Düsseldorf, a tight and undulating track, certainly favours front-runners, so Dettori’s tactics were clear. “She jumped good, I wanted to be in front and I was in front by the first bend,” he later said.

He set a moderate pace but always had everything under control, except for a brief moment when she faltered crossing the path. ”She was thinking of going back to the stables, but I said ‘come on, concentrate’ and she went.”

She was never in danger afterwards as she stayed on strongly to score by three parts of a length from Zamrud and Virginia Joy, separated by just a nose in second and third, who thereby almost exactly reproduced their form from Hamburg. It was a masterclass in the art of waiting in front, which looks so easy but in fact requires a top-notch jockey.

Dettori of course knows the track well, as he was a frequent visitor to Germany in his Godolphin days, but Gosden is seen here very rarely (and was in fact represented by his son Thady); this was only his second winner in Germany, after Mashaallah at Baden-Baden in 1992, and in fact his first runner here for more than 10 years.

However. he had planned it all perfectly and it is clear that he had been thinking about this race all along as Miss Yoda has no more fancy entries at all.

Silence Please, whose third place to Even So at Naas had been boosted when that that one went on to win the Irish Oaks, ran a good race in fourth.

Despite her outside draw, she was soon well placed and was third into the straight. She looked to have a real chance when challenging two out but started hanging a bit and then found no extra close home.

Zamrud, who was in second place more or less the whole way, ran a game race in second and Virginia Joy finished fastest of all from one of the last places, but the rest hardly got into the race. The German handicapper – always very conservative – was not unduly impressed and has put Miss Yoda on 108, the lowest rating for a winner of this race since 2006.

However, the last word has certainly not been spoken and we must certainly hope that Miss Yoda, or one of the others, puts that right later in the year.

The winner is owned by Georg von Opel under the nom de course of Westerberg (which is the name of the German stud now run by his niece). The German-born Swiss national has been a big buyer of well-bred fillies (including at Goffs last year). He paid €280,000 for Miss Yoda, one of the top lots at the BBAG Yearling Sale in 2018, and certainly hit the jackpot here.