Delectation flies flag for Germany in Falmouth Stakes

Wuheida will make her belated return in the Falmouth Stakes at Newmarket on Friday. Picture: Racingfotos.com

German raider Delectation will add an international flavour to the Group 1 Tattersalls Falmouth Stakes at Newmarket on Friday – the fourth leg in the Fillies & Mares division of the QIPCO British Champions Series.

Alongside the Aidan O’Brien-trained Irish hope, Roly Poly, Delectation is one of two overseas contenders for the one mile £200,000 contest on the Adnams July Course.

She will be ridden by Eddie Pedroza, the Panama-born four-time German champion jockey. Although trained in Gütersloh, north west Germany, by Andreas Wöhler, Delectation is no stranger to these shores as she was trained in 2016 by Bryan Smart and won the Group 3 Firth Of Clyde Stakes at Ayr last September.

Since being exported, she ran out the easy winner of a Cologne Group 3 on her German debut, then got stuck in the mud in the French 1000 Guineas at Deauville before finishing strongly into fourth place in the German equivalent at Dusseldorf last time.

Wöhler said: “Delectation is really well and I think that she is still on an upward curve – she will have to be if she is going to go close in the Tattersalls Falmouth Stakes as it looks like a really tough race.”

“The faster the ground the better for her – at Deauville [in the French 1000 Guineas] she was beaten after a couple of furlongs because of the soft going. She is a lot better than her fourth placing in the German 1000 Guineas shows. She has to be ridden from behind, and Dusseldorf is a tricky course to pull that off – she was just finding her stride when another horse came across her, and when she got going again it was too late.”

The home team is headed by Sea Of Grace, who was runner-up in the French Guineas, and Wuheida, unraced since landing the Group 1 Prix Marcel Boussac at Chantilly last October.

Godolphin, owners of Wuheida, are also represented by Arabian Hope, who will be bidding to give jockey Josephine Gordon the first Group 1 victory of her career.

The field is completed by Greta G, a Group 1 winner in her native Argentina now trained by John Gosden, and Mick Channon’s Opal Tiara, successful in the Group 2 Balanchine Stakes in Dubai five months ago.