Legacy of Adlerflug living on through bright young Gestut Schlenderhan prospects

The death of Adlerflug last year continues to cast a long shadow over Gestut Schlenderhan, with his owner-breeders fielding a pair of young prospects on what was a fine afternoon of results for a stallion who ranked among the brightest of German talents.

Baron Georg von Ullmann's nursery bred Adlerflug's debut winners of the first two races at Longchamp on Sunday, both carrying the stud's red and blue silks and trained by Francis Graffard.

First off the line in the Prix Juigne was the colt Alerio, who took the extended ten-furlong event in smooth style. He is out of Dubawi mare Amazona, a Group 3 winner for the family who was a daughter of their Preis der Diana heroine Amarette.

A race later and Christophe Soumillon repeated the trick on the filly Swoosh, who cruised home in the Prix de Chaillot over the same distance. An entry in the Diana herself, she is a sister to Grand Prix de Deauville winner Savoir Vivre from the family of the brilliant Stacelita.

Adlerflug was to extend his sequence with Mythico, last year's German Guineas winner, returning to land the Group 3 Kalkmann Fruhjahrs-Meile in a tight finish at Dusseldorf.

Philip von Ullmann, Schlenderhan's junior manager, was on hand in Paris to cast his eye over them.

"With the three-years-olds it’s nice to come out and debut directly and win their maiden, especially with Swoosh. She is a breeding prospect for us," he said.

"Mythico has a Schlenderhan pedigree and we have his full-sister in our broodmare band. She just gave birth to an Australia filly."

Von Ullmann had not fully expected the operation's star and Prix Ganay winner, Mare Australis, to make a winning comeback in the Prix Harcourt but will have been more than happy with an encouraging third behind his old foe, the late-swooping Skalleti.

Andre Fabre's five-year-old, by Australia, was part of a reshuffle in the Schlenderhan order in recent times.

"We had our own training ground in Germany, we then closed that down and decided to relatively split the margins," Philip von Ullmann explained.

"It's about 50 per cent in Germany and in France. We’ve been doing that since 2020 and can't really complain.

"We make the decision [on which are trained where] as yearlings. They all grow up in Schlenderhan, and from seven days, seven weeks and seven months, we see the progress of the horses. It's also bloodlines, especially fillies where we want to get black type and put them back into stud. We want to try to get the most out of them.

"Fabre is a genius when it comes to that and Graffard is slowly becoming the next Fabre - we can't complain with those two as our trainers here."

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