Having already hit the heights in the King George VI and Queen Elizabeth, it
will be calamitous if Novellist is anything other than the winner of Sunday’s
Group 1 Grosser Preis von Baden as he gears toward the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe.
Emphatic when dealing with Europe’s leading 12-furlong performers in that
July 27 Ascot highlight, Dr. Christoph Berglar’s homebred showed how far he had
come since finishing a tame fourth behind Danedream in this race 12 months ago.
That represented the last time the Monsun colt has tasted defeat, with last
year’s Gran Premio del Jockey Club Italiano and the June 23 Grand Prix de
Saint-Cloud also on his resume.
“All is going well with the horse. I am happy with his work at home,” trainer
Andreas Wohler told PA Sport. “It is a Group 1 on Sunday, but for us it is a
prep race.
“This is not our main plan — we want him to be 100 percent in five weeks’
time. The ground at Baden-Baden is on the slow side, but it is drying up. He
wouldn’t want the ground too fast, but there should be a little bit of cut in
the ground and he should be fine.”
If ring-rustiness takes away Novellist’s brilliance, there is a door open for
his progressive stable companion Seismos after he beat the three-year-old Empoli
by four lengths in the Grosser Preis von Bayern over this 1 1/2-mile trip at
Munich August 11.
Empoli is one of two sophomores in the short field, along with Quinzieme
Monarque. Formerly based in the United States with Tom Albertrani, Quinzieme
Monarque was most recently fourth in the German Derby for Jens Hirschberger.
Rounding out the quintet is Meandre, a triple Group 1 winner when trained by
Andre Fabre. Ninth in the Singapore Airlines Cup in his lone start for Doug
Watson, he made his debut for A. Savujev in the July 21 Grosser Preis von Berlin
and finished third as the defending champion.
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