Baden-Baden the Best Solution for Caulfield Cup prep

The international racing calendar is so crammed with top races there is hardly a gap anywhere for the fresh promotion of any fixture outside the major racing capitals.

Nobody is suggesting Baden-Baden is in any way a ‘Johnny Come Lately’ — there has been racing at Iffezheim since 1858 — but its Great Festival Week has taken on new appeal in the past decade.

The spa town’s biggest race, the G1 Grosser Preis Von Baden, takes place on Sunday, and Godolphin trainer Saeed bin Suroor is hoping to use it as a stepping stone to further riches for his G1 Caulfield Cup contender Best Solution.

Saeed knows well the German racing program, and particularly that of Baden-Baden, having sent out both Marienbard (2002) and Mamool (2003) to win the Grosser Preis Von Baden.

Best Solution is shaping as an excellent middle-distance campaigner, coming to this off the back of an eye-catching win in the G1 Grosser Preis Von Berlin at Hoppegarten on Sunday, 12 August.

In that race, he found himself a long way back after a tardy start but finished with a real flourish to win impressively by a length and threequarters, easily accounting for Khan (5th), Windstoss (6th) and Rapido (7th), who all re-oppose on Sunday.

Saeed said: “It will be an interesting race, as there are two nice horses from Germany in the contest, but Best Solution did a nice piece of work recently and he is ready for this. He is set to go into quarantine on Thursday, 13 September, for his trip to Australia.”

The two horses to which Saeed referred are Iquitos, winner of the Grosser Preis Von Baden in 2016 and runner-up last year, and Dschingis Secret, recent winner of a G2 in Hamburg and also second in the G2 Grand Prix de Chantilly earlier in the year.

The Roger Varian-trained Defoe, winner of the G2 Jockey Club Stakes at Newmarket, travels over from Britain to join the eight-runner field. Saeed has won G1 races in Germany this season with both Best Solution and Benbatl, and it is clear the German program provides a comfortable passage to the bigger prizes on offer later in the year.

“I am always trying to find the right races for my horses,” Saeed said. “You are always looking to place them in races that will bring them on for the future, and these German races have served that purpose, as well as providing very good prizemoney,” he added.

Best Solution has the chance of joining the Von Baden honour roll that is most impressive — Nebos, Strawberry Road, Acatenango (2), Carroll House, Lomitas, Lando (2), Pilsudski, Danedream (2) are just some of the big names to have won the race.