Germany's best horses in 2025
- Luis Kimmel
- Jan 26
- 10 min read
Racing in Germany always gets off to a very leisurely start in the new year. To shorten the wait for the real action a little, I took another look back at 2025. Here I present my champions - from the sprinters to my personal horse of the year.
FLATTEN THE CURVE - Champion Older Horse
Within a year, Flatten The Curve (Zarak) increased his OR from 76 to 109. In 2024, the Eckhard Sauren owned gelding raced at Fontainebleau, Vichy and Nantes. In 2025, we saw him at Saratoga, Kentucky Downs and Melbourne, among other places.
In Henk Grewe's stable, the now seven-year-old has become a real globetrotter. In Germany, Flatten The Curve was only seen four times in 2025. The son of Zarak won all four races on Blacktype level more or less without any problems. He was victorious in the Altano Rennen (listed), the G2 54th Oleander Rennen and the mybed.eu - Langer Hamburger (listed).
At Kentucky Downs, Flatten The Curve and Thore Hammer-Hansen won the million-dollar Bowling Green Gold Cup before finishing a respectable 13th in the G1 Melbourne Cup. The ‘race that stops a nation’ is also set to be the main target in 2026.
NASTARIA - Champion Older Mare
Nastaria (Outstrip) now has exactly 40 starts under her belt. She has left the track as the winner nine times. In 2025, this was the case after the listed Grosser Preis von Volkswagen Automobile Hannover - Steher Stutenpreis over 2400m. She became a group winner in Sweden in the G3 Stockholm Cup International.
Now seven years old, she more than earned the title of Champion Older Mare in 2025. Hard work must pay off.
Nastaria is currently not on any training list. Especially with such a famous horse, it would be great to know what the future plans are for her. Will she go into breeding or will she still be seen on the track in 2026?
Nastaria is one of the best known horses in Germany as shes trained by her owner Anna Schleusner-Fruhriep. In 2024 Nastaria finished fifth in the G1 Irish St. Leger.
SANTAGADA - Luis Horse Of The Year
In a few weeks, the German Horse of the Year will be chosen. Germany lacked a real superstar in 2025. Older horses were somewhat disappointing, and the Derby winner HOCHKÖNIG (Polish Vulcano) has not raced since his victory at Hamburg in July.
My choice therefore falls on the figurehead of German breeding: Santagada (Soldier Hollow). The Gestüt Park Wiedingen bred and owned filly stands for pretty much everything that German breeding is all about. Toughness, fighting spirit and willingness to perform. Of course, only the 2025 racing year should be taken into account in the official Horse of the Year election, but I would also like to take a brief look back at 2024 to highlight the exceptional nature of this Soldier Hollow daughter.
As a 12,5:1 shot, Santagada won the G3 151st Renate und Albrecht Woeste - Zukunfts-Rennen against the boys.
Her three-year-old season also began with a surprise. She won the G3 Karin Baronin von Ullmann - Schwarzgold-Rennen against the later classic winners NICORENI (Brametot) and LADY ILZE (Territories). In the G3 Japan Racing Association Trophy - Hamburger-Stuten-Meile, she showed her fighting spirit against a Godolphin filly.
Santagada ended the season in style with two more group wins. First, she struck in the G3 WETTSTAR.de - 35th Preis der Deutschen Einheit, before living up to her clear 1,7:1 favourite status in the G3 Shadwell Stallions - Herbst Stuten-Preis at Hanover.
Santagada is what I call a racehorse. In 2025, she competed seven times, winning four group races. Against fillies, colts and geldings. Against horses of the same age and older ones. Over 1600m, 2000m and 2200m. An impressive filly who has nothing to fear from any German horse in 2026. We can only be grateful to Helmut von Finck for keeping Santagada in training as a four-year-old.
Incidentally, the last filly to be voted German Horse of the Year was NIGHTFLOWER (Dylan Thomas) in 2015. Santagada's sire SOLDIER HOLLOW (In The Wings) won the title in 2004 for Gestüt Park Wiedingen.
Who else could be in contention alongside Santagada for Horse of the Year? I have opted for the star two-year-old GOSTAM (Saxon Warrior) and, of course, the Derby winner Hochkönig.
Gostam is set to start the year on May 1st in the G3 Bavarian Classic and then head for the G1 Prix du Jockey Club. He is the clear favourite with the bookmakers for the German equivalent at Hamburg.
Where will the journey of Derby winner Hochkönig take him? It can be assumed that he will start the year in the G2 Sauren Dachfonds-Preis at Cologne or the G2 Grosser Preis von Tattersalls at Baden-Baden.
HOCHKÖNIG - Champion Three-Year-Old
Hochkönig's Derby victory is perhaps the best story in German racing since Torquator Tasso's victory in the Arc in 2021. For me, his form at Hamburg came completely out of the blue. I was very sure that some horses are better than him, but my opinion didn't count on the day. With CONVERGENT (Fascinating Rock), he beat a decent British horse who went on to enhance the Derby with two Group wins. In the G2 Prix du Conseil de Paris, he beat DUBAI HONOUR (Pride Of Dubai) and the later winner of the G1 Grosser Allianz Preis von Bayern, BAY CITY ROLLER (New Bay), among others. Before his start in the German Derby, Convergent was third to Dual Derby winner LAMBOURN (Australia) and Epsom Derby runner-up and Irish Derby third LAZY GRIFF (Protectionist) in the G3 Chester Vase.
Hochkönig, on the other hand, had not raced since Hamburg. He had to miss the G1s at Baden-Baden and Cologne due to injury. His debut in 2026 will mark the first highlight of the year. Perhaps even a horse for the Arc?
In addition to the obvious choice of Hochkönig, I would also like to mention the Derby third-place finisher LAZIO (Make Believe). He also achieved a strong third place in the G1 Grosser Dallmayr Preis. He then came fourth in both the G2 Gran Premio del Jockey Club and the G1 Grosser Allianz Preis von Bayern. At the beginning of the year, he also came second in the G3 Wettstar.de - Bavarian Classic.
GOSTAM - Champion Two-Year-Old
In a year without any real superstars, the son of Saxon Warrior was a real ray of hope for german racing. Gostam made his debut on Dallmayr-Preis Day at Munich in July. He won straight away against good opponents. The runner-up SEGURO (Romanised) and fourth-placed DEIA'S DELIGHT (Wootton Bassett) both achieved fourth places at Group 3 level later in the year.
For Gostam, the journey continued at Baden-Baden. ‘Superior. Two lengths,’ noted the judge after the G3 152nd Renate und Albrecht Woeste - Zukunfts-Rennen. A form that was also to hold up internationally. The runner-up, George Scott trained COMMANDER'S INTENT (Victor Ludorum), subsequently placed in a G3 race at Newmarket. The winner of that race, the Godolphin owned DISTANT STORM (Night Of Thunder) went on to place in the G1 Darley Dewhurst Stakes and now stands at a OR of 115.
It is debatable which victory was Gostam's best form to date. Visually, it was probably at Cologne. For a moment, it looked as if the Wöhler protégé would lose his clean slate in the G3 Wettstar.de Preis des Winterfavoriten when LOMMI (Lope De Vega) came dangerously close to him. At the 300-metre mark, Gostam showed his class and pulled away by five lengths within a few gallops. No horse had managed the double of the Zukunfts-Rennen and Winterfavorit in 49 years!
The runner-up in the Winterfavorit, Lommi, went on to win the G3 Grosser Preis der RONDO FOOD GmbH & Co. KG - Herzog von Ratibor-Rennen.
SANTA CATARINA - Champion Two-Year-Old Filly
A filly that has only raced once is my champion two-year-old. On the one hand, because no other filly really convinced me, and on the other hand because Santa Catarina won like a real racehorse right on her debut. The Zarak daughter beat Gestüt Fährhof owned SOREANGA (Siyouni) 2 1/4 lengths at Mülheim. Soreanga went on to win a listed race at Hanover by 2 1/2 lengths against the colts LOUCAS (Best Solution) and DALYAN (Romanised). The former went on to win the €200,000 Ferdinand Leisten Memorial - BBAG auction race, while Dalyan finished third in the G3 Wettstar.de Preis des Winterfavoriten.
Santa Catarina got an entry for the G1 German Oaks as well as the G1 German Derby. Her dam SCONSET (Soldier Hollow) won the G3 Hamburger Stutenpreis in 2021 and achieved an OR of 108.
The bookies currently offer 30:1 for Santa Catarina for the Oaks. Decent value.
GEOGRAPHY - Champion Miler
Six starts, three group wins and a second place in the G3 Prix Messidor is Geography's (Holy Roman Emperor) record in 2025. Over 1600 metres, there was no way past the gelding owned by Stall Hanse. Geography also made a small mark abroad. In the aforementioned Prix Messidor at Chantilly, he started at enormous odds of 52:1, making him the longest outsider.
In Germany, he remained unbeaten in three starts. At Düsseldorf, he won the G3 Kalkmann Frühjahrs-Meile in April and in August he defended his title from the previous year in the G3 Fritz Henkel Preis.
The Schiergen trained gelding showed his most impressive form in Germany's most important mile race, the G2 92nd Brunner - Oettingen-Rennen. Without ever being in danger, he finished 2.5 lengths ahead of the runner-up SHORT FINAL (Zelzal).
Geography made his last start on Arc Day in the G1 Prix de la Foret. Here, too, he performed more than creditably. A narrow length separated Germany's best miler in fifth place from a G1 placing.
At the end of October, he changed owners for the equivalent of €648,000. He will now likely continue his career in Saudi Arabia.
The well known CALIF (Areion) was also once trained by Peter Schiergen for Stall Hanse. He won the G2 Oettingen-Rennen back in 2023. Last year he was third in the G1 FWD QEII Cup at Sha Tin for new owner Victorious Racing.
LADY ILZE - Champion Miler - Fillies&Mares
It's hard to say how good Lady Ilze (Territories) really is. In 2025, she only raced four times. The G3 Karin Baronin von Ullmann - Schwarzgold-Rennen was her first appearance in Germany after spending her two-year-old season exclusively in Poland. In Cologne, Lady Ilze, ridden by Westminster stable jockey Adrie de Vries, was only beaten by star filly Santagada, the later Oaks winner Nicoreni and the talented LIPS VEGA (Lope De Vega).
In the G2 Horn & Company - 105th German 1000 Guineas, Lady Ilze was seen at the back of the field for a long time. It was only at the 400-metre mark that she found clear running, really got going and ultimately secured classic success.
The victory in the Guineas earned her an invitation for the G1 Falmouth Stakes. Lady Ilze performed well against strong opponents, finishing fifth. She left two Group 1-placed mares behind her, RUNNING LION (Roaring Lion) and ATSILA (Phoenix Of Spain).
In August, the classic winner was offered at an online auction by Tattersalls. However, an offer of around €1 million was not enough, and so Lady Ilze remained in the possession of Westminster Stud.
She made her last start for the time being on 30 August in the US. However, she did not finish higher than seventh place at Group 3 level.
ALLENO - Champion Middle Distance - Colt
In the last category, I opted for Alleno (Nathaniel) over STRAIGHT (Zarak) for the simple reason that Alleno won a group race in 2025. The two cannot really be compared. Both can beat the other, it just depends on the going.
Alleno likes soft ground, as in April in the G2 Sauren Dachfonds Preis. The Gestüt Ittlingen owned colt came into play at surprisingly long odds in his season debut. The win under Sibylle Vogt paid 12,1:1. It was a success that couldn't really be built on. It wasn't until September at Iffezheim, more than four months after his Cologne success, that Marcel Weiß brought the Nathaniel son back to the starting line. He finished fourth in the G1 Wettstar.de Grosser Preis von Baden. After the long break, this was certainly satisfactory. A few weeks later, he also finished fourth in the G1 Mehl-Mülhens-Stiftung - Preis von Europa. He was beaten by 3.5 lengths by the winner SIBAYAN (Blame), who for me was the best racehorse we saw in Germany in 2025 (apart from the superstar Rebels Romance, of course).
Germany currently seems to be lacking high-class gallopers over the Derby distance. It will be interesting to see how Alleno will fare in 2026 against horses such as Hochkönig, Santagada and Lazio.
Die Sprinter
SCHÜTZENZAUBER - SHOOTOUT - ZEROSTRESS - WAR BRIDE
Sprinters and Germany just don't go together. There is probably not much difference between the horses mentioned. SHOOTOUT (Areion) won a G3 race over 1400 metres at Cologne. SCHÜTZENZAUBER (Amaron) and ZEROSTRESS (Areion) both won listed races over short distances and were the most consistent throughout the year. WAR BRIDE (Soldier's Call) provided the biggest surprise. The mare from Yasmin Almenräder's stable finished second in Germany's biggest sprint race, the G3 155th Casino Baden-Baden Goldene Peitsche.
All in all, there are too few good sprinters in Germany to crown champions here.
But that's not quite the end of it. Some categories are still missing, but they were won by horses already mentioned:
Category | Horse | Accomplishments in 2026 |
Champion Three-Year-Old Filly | Santagada | |
Champion Stayer | Flatten The Curve | |
Champion Stayer - Fillies&Mares | Nastaria | |
Champion Middle Distance - Fillies&Mare | Santagada |
The quieter months before the real season starts are the perfect time to actively review the past year.
I hope you enjoyed my little review.
Who would be your champions? Feel free to write your list as a comment directly below this post, on Instagram or Twitter.
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