Grosser Dallmayr-Preis - Bayerisches Zuchtrennen (G1)
Munich – 26th July 2026
HOTAZHELL returned to the winner’s enclosure and landed the second Group 1 race of his career when winning Sunday’s Grosser Dallmayr-Preis – Bayerisches Zuchtrennen in Munich. This was his first success since he won the Futurity Trophy as a 2-year-old at Doncaster in 2024 and ended a losing run of 7 starts for Jessica Harrington’s 4-year-old son of Too Darn Hot. Ridden forward by Shane Foley, the 4-year-old wasn’t one of the faster horses into stride, taking 6s to reach 50 km/h when the stalls opened but without any obvious early pace, Shane Foley found himself in front. He held that early advantage down the back straight and was able to save as much ground as possible under a cleverly positive ride. Despite the fact that some of our in-race metrics might point to the fact that Hotazhell was well placed and as a result, those in behind may have been slightly unlucky with the way the race developed, he crossed the line with the fastest run-out speed in the field (60.9 km/h) and that would suggest that he had more left to give had it been required.
Hotazhell and Timeforshowcasing recorded identical times of 2:04.29 and Charlie Johnston’s filly was certainly the stronger closer in the Munich home straight with the better late speed figure. However, having raced in the vanguard throughout, I would also make the point that she was ideally placed and had every chance to go by the winner. Having won a German 1,000 Guineas this season, she is clearly suited to the tight, turning nature of the tracks in Germany and showed plenty of early speed to get into a prominent position. However, there is perhaps a case that she was outstayed by the winner and found the battle with the older horses a step too far at this stage of her career. Timeforshowcasing had every chance, but I do want to offer an alternative case for Wimbledon Hawkeye. Recently purchased by Victorious Forever, this was his first start for George Scott since making the switch from James Owen and although he finished 3rd, he emerges from this Group 1 contest with an enormous amount of credit and his new connections must be full of optimism after such a promising start with the 4-year-old. At the halfway point, Oisin Murphy’s mount was as much as 0.8s behind (approximately 8 lengths) and yet he made up an enormous amount of ground to finish less than a tenth of a second behind the winner when crossing the line. A late speed figure of 63.89 km/h in the home straight ranked 1st and was 2% faster than any of the other runners in the field and in another few strides he may well have won. With all the success that horses in these colours have had in Germany in recent times, it wouldn’t be a surprise to see Wimbledon Hawkeye make another trip before the year is over.
Shane Foley’s post-race comments that “It wasn’t the plan to make the running, I went forward from my inside draw and I thought there wasn’t much pace in it and I ended up getting it very easy in front. They attacked me early in the straight, but this lad’s a fighter” (Source: At The Races) suggests that this race may have been run to suit rather than ridden from a preconceived plan. However, it was wonderful to see Jessica Harrington train another Group 1 winner and Hotazhell proved himself to be extremely tough as he closed out the race with a battling display inside the final furlong.