A MAXIMUM field of 20 was confirmed for tomorrow’s IDEE 152nd Deutsches Derby, the most valuable race of the German season and the first German Group 1 of 2021. A total of 21 were originally declared, but one was later taken out, which allowed the horse with the lowest official rating, the Peter Schiergen-trained Liban, to creep into the field.

Schiergen has two more runners, and is one of four trainers who go many-handed into the race. Markus Klug and Henk Grewe both have four runners, while Jean-Pierre Carvalho (known to all and sundry as “Chippie”) has three.

Both Schiergen and Klug have an excellent record in the race, but neither Grewe nor Carvalho has yet won it, although they have both had runners-up.

Of this quartet, Carvalho would appear to have the best chance of winning the German Derby. His runners are all owned by Manfred Hellwig’s Gestüt Höny-Hof, and stud manager Simon Minch, 51, has explained that this trio, Sea Of Sands (Sea The Stars), Sun Of Gold (Golden Horn), and Sassoon (Soldier Hollow) were the only three colts bred by the farm in 2018 and spent their early months in the same paddock.

Closely related

Even more incredibly, they are all closely related, all being grandsons of Höny-Hof’s great mare Salve Regina (Monsun), who won the Preis der Diana (Oaks) in 2002,and then finished runner-up in four Group 1s, including the German Derby.

Not only that, Salve Regina was an own sister to Samum and Schiaparelli, winners of the German Derby in 2000 and 2006, and also to Sanwa, dam of the 2014 winner Sea The Moon. So this trio all have the German Derby in their blood.

Corkman in Germany

Minch himself hails from Co Cork and has been in Germany since 1993; he has been at Höny-Hof since 2005, four years after the stud was founded. His family had a dairy farm on land which is now part of the Castlehyde Stud, which belongs to Coolmore. “The bottom yard at Castlehyde is where my parents farmed and is still known as the Minch yard,” he says. “However, we are not connected - except for the name - to Minch Bloodstock, which is a Coolmore vehicle.”

Minch seems coolly optimistic about tomorrow’s race. “I am very happy with all three,” he reports. “They are all really well, both physically and mentally, and I have great faith in our trainer Chippie Carvalho, who knows how to get horses exactly right for the big day.”

Höny-Hof has also been in headlines as breeder of top stayer Princess Zoe, who is actually named after Minch’s elder daughter, runner-up recently in the Ascot Gold Cup and winner last year of the Prix du Cadran for Tony Mullins.

Despite the obvious claims of this trio, the Derby looks wide open, and the likely favourite is Alter Adler, who is trained in Cologne by Waldemar Hickst and has so far raced only in France.

He is by Adlerflug, who sired the first two in the 2020 German Derby, but sadly died suddenly at Easter after suffering a heart attack. However, on official ratings there is only about 7lb between the whole field, and almost any of the field can be given a chance.