DOES PRINCE FLORI NEED A SLOW PACE?

PRINCE FLORI (33) was a shock winner of the Grosser Preis von Baden, and I confess that I'm still trying to figure out just how he managed to do it. The best theory I can come up with is that he's one of those horses that has tremendous acceleration that is best deployed in a very slow run race. So far Prince Flori has run in three slow run races according to my speed ratings and he's won them all. He's finished out of the first three both times he's encountered a strong early gallop.

WALERIA JUST GETS BETTER AND BETTER

WALERIA (39) beat a very decent field of colts to win the Group 3 Furstenberg Rennen at Baden-Baden, coming with a late charge to overhaul the front-running English raider SENOR DALI (38).

This was the fifth win in a row for Waleria who now ranks only a length or two off the best three year old fillies in Europe on my ratings.

Senor Dali is clearly a useful sort and should be capable of winning a Listed or Group 3 race soon.

Disappointment of the race was ASPECTUS (36) who probably failed to handle the soft ground (it was much softer than anything he'd raced on before). I'd still like to see Aspectus take up his engagement in the Champion Stakes at Newmarket as I think the race would suit him very well. As I've mentioned before, the key to Aspectus seems to be the number of runners. He tends to encounter traffic problems in a big field. But the Newmarket race would solve that problem as it's run on a straight course which gives the runners plenty of room to manouver.

SAMIRA IS PATTERN CLASS

SAMIRA (36) won a Dusseldorf maiden in Listed class time. This three year old filly had shown promise in a few sprint starts previously but improved significantly for the step up to 8.5 furlongs. This is not that surprising. Her dam's four wins all came over 10.5 and 11 furlongs, and Samira's sole winning sibling never scored over less than ten furlongs. This being so I'd bet on Samira improving again when she steps up to longer trips, and that makes her a rather interesting prospect.

QUIJANO MAKES IT SEVEN IN A ROW

The remarkable QUIJANO (40) made it seven wins from seven starts this season when taking Germany's most valuable handicap the Internationaler Club-Pokal at Baden-Baden. In doing so he earned yet another big Group class speed rating from me.

Quijano has already won a Listed race and is capable of winning in Group 2 company according to my ratings.

Runner-up KITON (39) keeps running second to smart performers. He ran Freedonia to a neck in France recently and that one went on to win a Group 2 next time out. He's very consistent and should win another race soon.