By Tom Frary
Debuting in the race won 12 months ago by the fellow John Gosden-trained Roaring Lion (Kitten's Joy) and in the past by Motivator (GB) and Frankel (GB), Gestut Ammerland's Waldstern (GB) (Sea the Stars {Ire}) started at 11-2 with the expectation being that he would need this introduction. Slowly away and settled worse than mid-division early, the chestnut gradually entered contention passing halfway and got rolling to inhale Venedegar (Ire) (Dubawi {Ire}) in the final 50 yards for a deeply promising 1 1/4-length success, with Le Don De Vie (GB) (Leroidesanimaux {Brz}) a length behind in third.
While this was not a flashy performance to match those of Frankel or even Motivator, the fact that such a stoutly-bred individual was able to win a well-contested novice on his first outing speaks volumes. His half-brother Waldgeist (GB) (Galileo {Ire}) also won at the first time of asking and took the G1 Criterium de Saint-Cloud, but he has also progressed with maturity and captured last month's G1 Grand Prix de Saint-Cloud. Also a half to the recent G2 Prix de Malleret scorer Waldlied (GB) (New Approach {Ire}), the winner is out of the G3 Prix Penelope scorer and past TDN Rising Star Waldlerche (GB) (Monsun {Ger}) who is turning into a formidable broodmare for Ammerland.
Jockey Robert Havlin was taken by the display. “He was quite backward in the early part of the race, but he's a long-striding horse who gradually picked up the bridle as we expected him to,” he explained. “I was riding him to finish off the race and he did it a lot stronger than I thought he would. I wanted him to find his stride, as it's a big learning curve and he had not been on the grass a lot. He did it the nice way round, when he hit the rising ground he finished off strongly and was also as good as gold in the preliminaries. I liked the way he behaved–nothing seemed to faze him. He's a big horse who I would imagine will run over a mile and a quarter upwards next year and he'll sharpen up a lot after today as he is quite inquisitive and looks about. He might travel a lot better the next day, as he pulled up as if he had had a canter. He seemed to handle this ground, which is on the slow side of good.”
3rd-Newmarket, £8,000, Cond, 8-17, 2yo, 8fT, 1:41.91, g/s.
WALDSTERN (GB), c, 2, by Sea the Stars (Ire)
1st Dam: Waldlerche (GB) (GSW-Fr & SP-Ger), by Monsun (Ger)
2nd Dam: Waldmark (Ger), by Mark of Esteem (Ire)
3rd Dam: Wurftaube (Ger), by Acatenango (Ger)
Sales history: 400,000gns Ylg '17 TATOCT. Lifetime Record: 1-1-0-0, $6,578. O-Gestut Ammerland; B-Newsells Park & Ammerland Gmbh & Co Kg (GB); T-John Gosden. *1/2 to Waldgeist (GB) (Galileo {Ire}), MG1SW-Fr & GSP-Eng, $1,104,301, & to Waldlied (GB) (New Approach {Ire}), GSW-Fr, $123,344. Click for the Racing Post result or the free Equineline.com catalogue-style pedigree. Video, sponsored by Fasig-Tipton.
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