The G1 Grosser Preis Bayerisches Zuchtrennen (2000m), run at Munich on Sunday (26 July), is one of the highlights of the German racing season, a historic contest with a glittering roll-call of domestic and international middle-distance winners.

This year’s line-up includes six battle-hardened overseas challengers taking on four domestic hopefuls. It is also five colts and geldings against five fillies and mares in what looks a wide-open event with the field closely matched on ratings.

Highest rated is Wimbledon Hawkeye, who is having his debut start for the Newmarket stable of George Scott, with in-form jockey Oisin Murphy partnering the three-time winner for the first time. Murphy won this race last year on Tornado Alert.

Wimbledon Hawkeye landed the lucrative G3 Nashville Derby Invitational Stakes (2100m) at Kentucky Down last August under Frankie Dettori, and comes here off a narrow defeat in the Listed Wolferton Stakes (2005m) at Royal Ascot.

Another four-year-old British challenger is Coedana, from the upwardly mobile stable of Ed Bethell, who will be partnered by Daniel Tudhope for the first time. Big and strong, she has been freshened up since winning the Listed Pontefract Castle Fillies’ Stakes (2405m) in June, and her trainer said: “She’s improving and when fillies get on a roll like this you don’t know where the ceiling is.”

Coedana is coming down in distance, whereas Charlie Johnston-trained Timeforshowcasing, who is moving up to 2000m, with the 15,000-guineas bargain buy having already enjoyed German Classic success this season by winning the G2 German 1000 Guineas (1600m) at Dusseldorf in May. After that victory, Johnston heaped praise on jockey Jack Mitchell, so it is no surprise that he is in her saddle again. Johnston said of Timeforshowcasing: “She is a lovely scopey, almost masculine, filly. I think she is better with some ease in the ground, which we got in Dusseldorf.”

The ground in Munich is currently described as good, good to soft in places, though with little rain forecast, it could ride quicker.

Ireland has two live contenders in Hotazhell and Wemightakedlongway. Jessica Harrington-trained Hotazhell won Doncaster’s G1 Futurity Trophy Stakes (1600m) in 2024 and was last seen when a close third in the G3 International Stakes (2000m) at the Curragh in June.

With the stalls positioned close to the first bend, Hotazhell – drawn in two – looks to have a better gate than Wemightakedlongway in nine. But that filly comes with the high-profile trainer/jockey combination of Joseph O’Brien and Dylan Browne McMonagle, whose latest big-race success was with Johanna Walsh in last weekend’s G1 Irish Oaks (2400m).

Of the Germany-based contenders, the Peter Schiergen-trained pair of Wilko and Santagada are the leading hopes on ratings. Stable jockey Bauyrzhan Murzabayev will partner Wilko, with Leon Wolff piloting Santagada.

Andreas Suborics-trained Seguro has won Group 3s in his last two starts, more recently with a brave display in a tight finish to the Grosser Preis von Lotto Hamburg (2000m). Benjamin Marie’s mount looks like a young horse on the up.

The G1 Grosser Preis Bayerisches Zuchtrennen (2000m) is carded as S3-2 and will be run at 8.10pm (Hong Kong time) on Sunday, 26 July.

Photo: Healy Racing