SCHIAPARELLI LOOKING GOOD FOR THE CANADIAN INTERNATIONAL

There are two strong statistics for the Deutschlandpreis. The first is that the six three year old winners in the last 22 years all won a Group 2 or placed in a Group 1 before taking the race. The second is that 22 of the last 24 winners won more than a quarter of their previous outings.

Only one horse in this year's line up matched the above profile and that was last year's German Derby and St Leger winner SCHIAPARELLI (31). Sure enough he won, but it was a really close call.

The early pace in the Deutschlandpreis was pedestrian. So after about half a mile Schiaparelli's jockey sent him into the lead. He didn't really ask him to fully stretch out though till gradually winding it up from about three furlongs out.

In the sprint to the line Schiaparelli pulled clear of the rest but was steadily being worn down by the three year old CONILLON (31) and eventually only prevailed by a neck.

Schiaparelli has now won seven of his eleven starts. He probably needed the run in three of his losses (he's a strapping big horse who surely takes plenty of getting fit). His only other loss was when he ran three quarters of a length second in the Deutschlandpreis as a three year old last year when the dreadfully slow early pace was all against him and his jockey had yet to learn the trick of sending him into the lead to counter it.

Trainer Peter Schiergen says he has big plans for Schiaparelli later this season involving international races. I'd be pretty sure he's talking about the Canadian International at Woodbine as he's not entered in the Arc and not qualified for the Breeders' Cup (unless the owner pays a huge supplementary fee).

Schiaparelli is almost certainly one of the top middle distance horses in Europe. His win was kind of ugly looking. But I can't see how a great big horse like him can have been suited to the slow early pace so I'd pay more attention to the fact he's now won two Group 1's rather than the style of this success. I'd say we're going to be hearing more of him this season. I just wish they were offering ante-post betting on the Canadian International as Schiaparelli would have a major shot of taking that race.

Runner-up Conillon was disadvantaged by the slow early pace when a close third to the smart Axxos in the Oppenheim Union-Rennen according to his connections. And it looked to be the same story here. Schiaparelli caught him a bit flat-footed as he kicked for home but Conillon was gaining ground strongly close home and still full of run.

German three year olds very rarely campaign abroad. So I imagine that Conillon will be taking on Schiaparelli once more in the Grosser Preis von Baden. And I dare say a lot of people will fancy him to reverse this form. He's yet to earn a good speed rating but he certainly looked a class act here. I suspect he'll develop into a very decent performer in the big international middle-distance races next year.

EMPORIO CAN KEEP ON WINNING

EMPORIO (37) won a decent class 2 handicap at Dusseldorf in pattern class time. He's now won all three times he's run beyond ten furlongs on good or faster ground.

Right now Emporio is rather leggy and immature. But his sire's progeny tend to progress well with age and quite a few have become decent hurdlers. So I imagine we'll be seeing Emporio bought for the jumping game by a big British or Irish yard sooner rather than later. Meanwhile he looks to have a great chance of becoming the third of his dam's four foals to race to earn black type.