Swiss Derby

Hamm

Hamm

At the Start
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Not sure if this is of interest, but I attended the Swiss Derby last Sunday in Frauenfeld, which is about 30 minutes from Zurich. A very enjoyable day's racing, featuring a trotting race, a cross country race and the remainder, including the Swiss Derby itself, were on the flat.

Olivier Peslier was riding there (had a winner), and was also second in the feature race (worth CHF 100,000 (about £55,000)), which was won by Dubai Rose, a Dubai Destination colt, who we were told beforehand time and again was not fancied by the French over the loudspeaker!

The course itself was most enjoyable, some nice local foods, the paddock was quite small, but perfect for pre-race inspection and the betting was the same as the PMU in Paris.

Dubai Rose below (i'll try and post more pictures but they are unfortunately of the phone variety)

 
Think the race is over 12f. It was when Johnston ran Swiss Act in it in 2007. His owner Marjus Graff likes to send horses out there for the race and to St Moritz.
 
I think they may have changed it to 2000m but I'll need to double check.

Yes, a round oval track, with a reasonable gradient. They started for most races (2000m) at say ten o clock to the grandstand, ran clockwise downhill, onto a sweeping right-hand bend, and then there was a decent climb to the finish.

All presentations were made at the winning post with a big band.

Prize money was okay I thought, especially for the Derby.

There were some top & well-known sires represented, a Galileo, a Dr Fong, the Dubai Destination who won the Derby, a few Big Shuffles and others I can't remember offhand (racecard unfortunately had to be discarded after delicious apple & vanilla pastries became part of the card!).

Peslier rode mainly for one owner, can't remember the name, but his colours were royal blue with orange spots (style similar to Caracciola's silks), and that owner had 2 in the Derby, with the other looking to me like a pacemaker :) , making all before Dubai Rose took it up, with Peslier's amount unable to close despite going well, looking a non-stayer.
 
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Flippant I know, but when I saw the title, I had a vision of a row of cuckoo clock houses lined up as the stalls.
 
I paid 15 francs, which is about 10 euro. That didn't include entry to the stands, as in you had to stand below them, as opposed to it being an enclosure like in England. You probably needed to be in the stands to have a really good view but my German is limited to the basics so I wasn't aware of the need to pay more.
 
Thanks for sharing hamm. The Swiss Derby has Listed Status, if thats of interest. Have never been myself but my partner in a mare is swiss, and very acitve in the local racing scene, she has a Black Sam Bellamy in training over there, and acts as a steward etc. I think racing in concentrating around 3-4 tracks or so, and many of the local trainers tackle France. Carmen Bocskai and her husband train over there, he was champion jockey in Germany an long time ago, but still rides there. They even have a (admittingly small) auction as well. Actual broodmare band is very small, but many swiss breeders obviously breed and race elswhere, one simple reason being that Switzerland simply has no space between its mountains.
 
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