‘We want to reach for the stars’ - Fantastic Moon in frame for Irish Champion Stakes

German Derby winner Fantastic Moon has emerged as a fascinating candidate for the Royal Bahrain Irish Champion Stakes at Leopardstown on September 9.

The Sarah Steinburg-trained colt emulated sire Sea The Moon by winning the Hamburg Classic this month, beating 19 rivals by two and a quarter lengths despite having to swing wide turning into the home straight and coming up the stands’ rail.

His Lanwades Stud-based sire won the same race by 11 lengths and had his next start in the Grosser Preis von Baden.

However, connections of the Rene Piechulek-ridden 2023 winner are eying a crack at the Irish Champion, subject to how he fares closer to home on Sunday week.

Fantastic Moon does not yet hold an entry in the €1 million Leopardstown showpiece, and it would cost €22,500 to add him next Wednesday, before his intended next race, or €75,000 on September 5. 

Speaking to Martin Stevens in Good Morning Bloodstock, Lars-Wilhelm Baumgarten, founder of Liberty Racing, which owns the colt, said: “Fantastic Moon will run in the Grosser Dallmayr-Preis at Munich at the end of the month. It will be a big challenge taking on older horses, and if he wins we’re thinking about going to the Irish Champion Stakes with him. 

"It would be a huge step, no German horse has run in it since Sumitas 23 years ago, and we know we’d be taking on great horses like Paddington, but we want to reach for the stars. 

“We’ll see. I think Fantastic Moon has improved even since the Derby, though. His trainer Sarah Steinberg’s horses usually get better with age and are at their best at four. Mendocino won the Grosser Preis von Baden and Quest The Moon was at his best at that age. She doesn’t hurry her horses and that could prove to be a big advantage for us.”

The colt has won four of his five starts. A Group victory on the CV as a two-year-old is always important and he duly collected it by taking the Preis des Winterfavoriten at Cologne last year. 

He was beaten into third behind Mr Hollywood in the Bavarian Classic at Munich on his return this spring, but he got back on track in the Derby-Trial at Baden-Baden prior to his heroics at Hamburg, where he turned the tables on Mr Hollywood.

Fantastic Moon was bred by the Stauffenbergs out of the Jukebox Jury mare Frangipani, and was bought by Liberty Racing off his breeders for €49,000 at the BBAG Yearling Sale in 2021.

Liberty Racing could already have cashed in for many multiples of that, Baumgarten revealed, when adding: “Just last week we received a big offer for Fantastic Moon, so we phoned the shareholders and told them there was the possibility of selling, but the decision was to keep him, so I returned to the agent and turned them down.”

He is between a 25-1 and 50-1 chance with British and Irish bookmakers for the Qatar Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe on October 1, a race Piechulek won on the German-trained longshot Torquator Tasso two years ago.

Good Morning Bloodstock is our latest email newsletter. Leading bloodstock journalist Martin Stevens provides his take and insight on the biggest stories every morning from Monday to Friday.