WETTSTAR.de - 142nd Deutsches St Leger (Group 3)
Dortmund - 20th September
When Lordano finished 3rd in the 141st German St Leger in 2025, he was unlucky enough to bump into the subsequent Group 1 winner Caballo de Mar. There was no sign of George Scott’s star stayer this year and as a result, Lordano was able to stamp his class on the German St Leger field with a relatively comfortable success under Sibylle Vogt, regaining the crown that he won in 2023 under Rene Piechulek. A winning time of 3:02.19 made this the fastest renewal of the race since his 2023 success and would suggest that a going description of Good to Soft was more than fair. An average speed figure of 55.33 km/h was slightly quicker than our expected average for a winner of this race and given the early contest for the lead, that would suggest this race was run close to those expected average figures.
The opening half a mile of the contest was covered in a reasonable time, with each of Queimados, Helvetic’s and Pashang covering the distance in under 55s. Sibylle Vogt was clearly keen to avoid getting involved in that early battle and had her mount over a second behind the lead as the field shifted to the outside of the course in the back straight. Once they began to close, it became very obvious that Lordano was travelling best of all and although Sibylle Vogt did her best to take a lead for as long as possible, once given his head at the 500m pole, Lordano lengthened away to take control of the German St Leger with ease. A top speed of 60.41 km/h ranked 2nd overall, but nothing could live with his late kick as he reached an average late speed of 57.89 km/h inside the final couple of furlongs and although he had to be nudged out, I think it would be fair to say that Lordano was good value for his 0.71s winning margin (4.25 lengths).
At the age of 7, it is hard to make a case that Lordano is improving and as the 2025 renewal of this race showed, he is vulnerable when he meets a genuine Group 1 performer like Caballo de Mar. However, Marcel Weiss’ son of Alderflug has now won a pair of German St Legers, as well as a host of races at this level and being a late non-runner in the Grosser Preis von Baden a fortnight ago has proven to be a blessing, as he was able to take in another renewal of this race instead. On that occasion, Saddadd recorded a faster average speed, top speed and late speed figure than Lordano did in this race, albeit over a shorter trip and I don’t think there can be any doubt that the St Leger setup was much more suitable for the 7-year-old than the Grosser Preis von Baden would have been. There may not have been the presence of a Victorious Forever owned horse in this year’s race, but in their absence, Lordano confirmed his status as one of the leading middle distance horses in Germany and even at the age of 7, he shows no signs of stopping. He stays well, he travels, handles different ground conditions and can quicken in the latter stages when required, which gives him everything that’s needed to be a good stakes performer. The track at Dortmund suits him well and he has now joined El Tango (2005, 2007) as a multiple German St Leger winner. The data makes an obvious case for Lordano being the best horse in the field and if he makes it to the race in a year’s time and gets a similar setup, he may even become the first horse to win this race 3 times.