Winner of the Mehl-Mülhens Trophy, third in the Diana Henkel Prize, and second in the T. von Zastrow Mare Prize, Auenquellerin Virginia Joy was one of the best three-year-old mares in Germany in the 2020 season. The Soldier Hollow daughter made the headlines But not only on the green lawn, but also in the auction ring, because at the Arc Sale by Arqana in October it was bought by Peter M. Brant, and thus the owner of last year’s Arc winner Sottsass, for 975,000 euros.
And for her new colors, the mare, who is now being trained by Chad Brown in the United States, made her debut on Friday. At Belmont Park, the four-year-old competed in an Allowance Optional Claiming race over 2,000 meters of the grass track, which was endowed with 94,000 dollars, and in which she faced six opponents. Behind her training mate Capital Structure went the ex-German, who was run by Irad Ortiz jr. was ridden, with a rate of 2.7: 1 as the second favorite in the race.
But after a race from the reserve, the mare, who had previously been prepared by Marcel Weiß, scored her first victory at the first US start, when she passed her training mate slightly at the end and won by three quarters of the length.
Another former German class mare of the 2017 vintage was also in good shape on Friday evening in Keeneland with Kalifornia Queen. The Lope de Vega daughter who ran the Röttgen Diana Trial (Gr. II) won in Hoppegarten, and was sold to America at the Arc Sale for 260,000 euros in October, was launched in their new home for the second time.
The four-year-old, trained by Chad Brown like Virginia Joy, competed in the Bewitch Stakes, a $ 150,000 2400 meter test at Group III level for four-year-olds and older mares on the grass track. Under jockey Tyler Gaffalione, the ex-German who started with a 7.8: 1 chance in the field of eleven horses had no chance of winning, but took a good fourth place almost four lengths behind the winner War Like Goddess (Bill Mott / Julien Leparoux), where in the end she wasn’t beaten far for a better rank. Fifth in this race was Dalika, a daughter of Pastorius from Ammerland, another horse previously trained in Germany.
–
