World Racing Weekly: Grosser Preis Von Bayern Test Is Tiffany’s Last Chance

Tiffany Bound For Tattersalls

Sir Mark Prescott is well-versed in winning a Group 1 race in Germany with a classy mare and on Saturday he will send out Tiffany in a hot edition of the G1 Grosser Preis Von Bayern, her last act before heading to the Tattersalls December Sale.

“It’s been a good race for us, we won it with Albanova and Alpinista,” Sir Mark told Idol Horse.

Alpinista gained wider fame by winning the G1 Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe the following year, while Albanova’s win in the 2400m contest came under its previous name, the Rheinland-Pokal.    

Tiffany has top form in Britain, having finished third behind Kalpana in the G1 British Champions Fillies And Mares race at Ascot last year, but is well-accustomed to raiding German prizes. She has already bagged a couple of Listed races and a Group 2 there and rounded off last season with a close second in this race. She returned from a 10-month lay-off to claim second in the G1 Preis Von Europa last time. 

“I thought it was a good effort at Cologne last time off a long lay-off,” Prescott said. “She had a hairline crack to her vertebrae in the spring so that was a long time off and I thought she ran well.

“She should improve, she’s had a nice rest between the two races: I resisted going to Ascot this time to give her longer between the two, although it has only enabled me two cracks at a Group 1 and not three. I decided a longer gap was worth it but this is a better Group 1 than it was last year when she was second in it.”

Saturday’s race features a couple of notable rivals, the Karl Burke-trained G1 Deutsches Derby runner-up Convergent, winner of the G2 Prix du Conseil de Paris last time, and 2023 G1 Hong Kong Vase hero Junko. Prescott would have been happier if Andre Fabre kept the latter at home this weekend.

“I was displeased to see that,” he said with humour. “The whole race is a notch up on last year.”

But winning a Group 1 with broodmare prospect Tiffany is the primary aim this season. The Elite Racing Club homebred is out of a half-sister to the brilliant Soviet Song, whose half-sister Baralinka is the second dam of Marsha, a mare Prescott trained to win two Group 1 sprints before she was sold to Coolmore for six million guineas at Tattersalls in December 2017.

“It’s a very important race for her,” he emphasised. “She hasn’t won a Group 1, she’s been placed in three Group 1s and she goes to the sales for Elite Racing who very kindly had Marsha with me. She made a tremendous sum and now Tiffany is heading to the sales in December as well. We don’t expect the same result at Tattersalls, but if she were to win on Saturday it would enhance things.”

As to whether Tiffany can improve on her performance last year as a more mature athlete, Prescott said, “You just don’t know, but it was a good comeback.

“She’s had a nice break in between so she’s not going to be victim to the famous – though I don’t altogether believe it – bounce factor,” he added. “I think we’ve done it as well as we can, and now will she be quite good enough?” 

Tiffany’s Germany raid comes on a weekend when fellow Newmarket trainer William Haggas will have two runners in Australia, Lake Forest in a star-packed G1 Champions Mile at Flemington, and Bullet Point in the Listed Five Diamonds at Rosehill. 

Yahagi’s Horse of the Year Fear

Forever Young’s victory in the G1 Breeders’ Cup Classic at Del Mar last Saturday left no doubt that the five-year-old is a genuine world champion and Japan’s first global dirt track star. But will his remarkable achievements off-shore gain the recognition they deserve back in Japan?

The inimitable and brilliant Yoshito Yahagi is not sure. He has charted an incredible career for the son of Real Steel, one that has brought victory not only in North America’s top weight-for-age race at 2000m, but also a narrow and unlucky defeat in the G1 Kentucky Derby last year, and a famous win against Hong Kong’s own superstar Romantic Warrior in the G1 Saudi Cup last February.

But only six of the colt’s 13 races have been in Japan, and he has only ever raced once on a Japan Racing Association (JRA) track, a Newcomer win at Kyoto in October 2023. While he was impressive winning the Nippon TV Hai at the National Association of Racing (NAR)’s Funabashi in September, that was his only race in Japan this year.      

Japanese media’s parochial mindset and the slant to favouring turf runners in the JRA’s Horse of the Year voting was clearly playing on Yahagi’s mind when he spoke to the press pack at Del Mar after Forever Young’s historic win last weekend.

“You guys say this is a great achievement,” he said. “But can people in Japan really appreciate that? Now I am speaking to you media people, it will be hilarious if he wins the Eclipse Award for Horse of the Year (in the United States) but wins nothing in Japan.”

This Week In Horse Racing History

November 6, 1990 saw the fastest Melbourne Cup of all time. Kingston Rule set a blistering track record of 3m 16.3s in the 3200m ‘race that stops the nation’ for legendary trainer Bart Cummings and jockey Darren Beadman.

Bold Ruler made the U.S. Horse of the year title his when he posted an all-the-way victory under Eddie Arcaro in the Trenton Handicap at Garden State Park, New Jersey on  November 9, 1957, defeating Gallant Man and Round Table in a three-horse race.

November 8, 1988 was a day for landmarks as Julie Krone became the first woman to ride at the Breeders’ Cup, taking second place on Darby Shuffle in the Juvenile Fillies; the filly Miesque became the first horse to win consecutive runnings of a Breeders’ Cup race in the Mile; and another star filly, Personal Ensign, won her 13th straight race in the Distaff and retired as the first unbeaten champion in North America for 80 years.  

Idol Horse Reads Of The Week

Forever Young’s historic win for Japan prompted a wave of euphoria at Del Mar, but David Morgan was on the spot in the quieter moments too as Yoshito Yahagi fulfilled a dream that was years in the making. 

BC25

Yahagi’s Classic: How Forever Young Redefined Japan’s Breeders’ Cup Dream

Adam Pengilly got around and about at Flemington earlier this week to give a comprehensive view of Melbourne Cup day as Jamie Melham and Half Yours took their places in history. 

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Cash Bets And Chaos: The Story Of The 2025 Melbourne Cup

Tom Prebble spoke to Adam Pengilly seven weeks after the race fall that has left him paralysed from the chest down. The 23-year-old said: “Initially I was so upset and dirty on the world, but then I thought, ‘it could be so much worse’. I’m so fortunate in the sense I have my arms and I have my head.”

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“I Just Want To Get Back To Society”: Tom Prebble’s Most Important Race

Racing Photo Of The Week

Date
4 November, 2025

Photographer
Grant Courtney

Location
Flemington

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Festival Hill is a filly that should be a serious player in upcoming Group 1 races, whether that be the Hanshin Juvenile Fillies next month or next season’s classics. The superbly-bred youngster – a Saturnalia sibling to G1 Satsuki Sho winner Museum Mile – made it two wins from three starts when justifying favouritism in the G3 Fantasy Stakes at Kyoto last weekend despite giving her jockey Cristian Demuro a less-than-smooth passage.

The filly broke slowly with sweat on her neck and ears tilted back. She raced keenly at the back of the main pack and had to be checked off heels a couple of times. Festival made up ground once the field fanned out in the home straight, but it wasn’t until inside the two-pole that a penny seemed to drop as she changed legs and accelerated to seal a narrow yet smart win.

Festival Hill should progress again for the experience and could yet be the horse that gives her 52-year-old trainer Hirofumi Shii his first win above Group 3 level.

World Horse Racing Calendar: What’s Coming Up

🇦🇺 Champions Stakes Day
Flemington, November 8

The Champions Stakes headlines a trio of Group 1s at Flemington on Saturday and, once again, it’s Via Sistina that arrives at the contest as the main attraction when she looks to defend her crown. Chris Waller’s superstar mare held off Buckaroo when she had to dig deep for a second Cox Plate last time out. Attrition, Tom Kitten and Light Infantry Man are among those attempting to thwart Via Sistina’s hunt for another Group 1 success.

🇩🇪 Grosser Preis von Bayern Day
Munich, November 8

Sir Mark Prescott is the most recent British trainer to win the Grosser Preis von Bayern with the mighty Alpinista in 2021 and he will try to repeat that feat with Tiffany this weekend. Trainers Karl Burke and George Scott could also be looking to follow in those footsteps in this year’s renewal of the 2400m Group 1 in Munich with Convergent and Bay City Roller, respectively. Convergent narrowly missed out in the G1 Deutsches Derby in July and he will try and go one better under William Buick after a pair of Group wins in Ireland and France.

🇯🇵 Queen Elizabeth II Cup Day
Kyoto, November 16

The Queen Elizabeth II Cup is the only top-level contest in Japan that is restricted to fillies and mares aged three or above and takes place over 2200m. On the back of her powerful win in the All Comers at Nakayama, Regaleira may hunt for a third win at the top table in this year’s renewal. The four-year-old filly, who has won four of her 10 starts, claimed her first Group 1 win in the Hopeful Stakes at Nakayama in 2023 and followed that up with a gutsy Arima Kinen success over Shahryar in December last year.

🇯🇵 Mile Championship
Kyoto, November 23

Mark Zahra enjoyed a remarkable Royal Ascot success aboard Docklands in the G1 Queen Anne Stakes and the star Australian will bid for more international success with the Harry Eustace-trained five-year-old in Kyoto. Docklands narrowly got the better of Rosallion at Ascot in June and while he hasn’t got his head in front since, Eustace’s stable star will be heading to Japan on the back of a gallant fourth in the G1 Queen Elizabeth II Stakes last month. He will look to take down the likes of Soul Rush and Ascoli Piceno.

🇯🇵 Japan Cup
Tokyo, November 30

This year’s star middle-distance horse in Europe looks set to test his mettle in Japan at the end of November when Calandagan wages war on the Tokyo turf. Trainer Francis-Henri Graffard has enjoyed a sensational season and he will try to put the cherry on top courtesy of his four-year-old gelding, who has won three Group 1s this term.Last time out, Calandagan arguably produced his career-best performance when he stamped his class in a red-hot G1 Champion Stakes at Ascot. ∎