Zoffany has had a great week. 3 wins means he has equalled the feat of New Approach back in 2012 for a first-season sire. He's now almost certain to be Champion New Sire, he could even be Champion 2yo sire in terms of Winnings. A nice position for Coolmore and he could have covered your mare for €12,500. He won't be that next year.
They're certainly not, bayernkenny, but horseracing-wise the majority of people in this nation have no interest whatsoever. For example, after Danedream and Novellist had performed at the highest level, one could hardly find a report on their finest hours. When Danedream won the Arc in 2011, Germany's top TV channel, ARD, did not even report it on their 20:00 News programme, and no channel showed the race live earlier, as far as I can remember. Germany has really fine trainers, and jockeys too, plus bloodstock that is sought the world over, but, no, the general public here are not, generally speaking, at all interested in horseracing. They seem to like football a lot, and bet on it like hell, can't understand why?
I have to agree about the general interest in horseracing in Germany. Many of the 'Wettannahmen' my mum and I used to frequent now only bet on football; not only in Germany, Turkey and England but from all over the world. Koln has about four 'bookies' where you can bet on the cuddies whereas when I first visited in the late eighties there were about ten. Nurnberg down from two to zip. Munich possibly down from ten to three(?); Hbf, Leopoldstrasse and Maderbraustrasse(?). I think we discussed the 'independent' which opened for a short while in the side street opposite from the Weisses Brauhaus; this was my mum's favourite as she could 'snack' all day and I had no excuse to 'nip' out for a beer (nip?). Years ago there used to be a programme on a Sunday afternoon on one of the minor TV channels which covered one handicap each week. I suppose it was similiar to the French 'Tierce' race. Am I right in thinking that the only other races covered are the Deutsches Derby and the Grosser Preis von Baden? There were however the usual 'die hard' horseracing fans both in the bookies and at the tracks that you find all over the globe. I have not visited Baden Baden for many years but would presume the five or so bookies which covered racing still provide the service. Our visits to Karlsruhe with day trips to Baden Baden were one of my mum's favourite experiences in Germany and, in fact, were among my most enjoyable overseas visits predominantly for horseracing . We also enjoyed the days which were sponsored by local concerns, for instance; Dallmayr at Munich and one of the Kolsch breweries at Koln. The 'freebies' were fantastic!! Returning from Germany, France or the USA after experiencing the low prices for entry and the reasonable prices of food and drinks I always tried to balance this cost against the lack of ontrack 'bookies'. Any thoughts? At least in Germany, there was always a 'branch' of a local bookmaker at the track; useful for betting on big races in the UK, Ireland or France.
