Hofer becomes first lady rider to win Group race
Germany: Trainer Mario Hofer celebrated a memorable family triumph in Munich on Tuesday when Smooth Operator, ridden by his 24-year-old daughter Steffi, won the Group 3 Silberne Peitsche (Silver Whip) in a tight finish.
The winning rider has long been Germany's leading female jockey but this was her first Group-race victory, indeed the first by any female jockey in Germany. Not only that, Mario Hofer bred the winner and passed him on to Gerd Zimmermann, one of his main owners, after his early juvenile successes.
Smooth Operator has been the most consistent German sprinter of the last three years. This was his fifth Group victory and Hofer said afterwards that he would go next for a Group 3 race over seven furlongs at Longchamp, followed by the race at Hamburg in which he was beaten two short-heads by Walero last year.
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