The handsome bay Alson is set to stand at Gestüt Fährhof and will be the first German-bred juvenile Group 1 winner to retire to stud in that country.
Bred by Gestüt Schlenderhan, Alson won on his debut at two before running twice in France and winning his third start at Clairefontaine. He then annexed his first Black Type race when taking the Group 3 Zukunfts-Rennen at Baden-Baden, before finishing runner-up to Victor Ludorum in the Group 1 Prix Jean-Luc Lagardère at Longchamp. Alson then contested the Group 1 Critérium International, again at Longchamp, where he ran away from his sole opponent Armory and won by 20 lengths.
He began his three-year-old career by finishing third in the Classic Group 1 Poule d’Essai des Poulains, before recording his fifth career victory in the Listed Prix Matchem. He also finished second in the Group 3 Prix Perth that year.
Alson crosses the line with his ears pricked to win the Group 1 Prix Jean-Luc Lagardère at Longchamp. His pedigree features a healthy combination of stamina and speed.
Alson was the first Group 1 winner for his underrated sire Areion. This smart sprinting son of the multiple leading sire Big Shuffle has always been excellent value for money with his progeny list being headed by 85 Stakes performers, including 27 Group winners and a further 32 Listed winners. Most of Areion’s offspring are honest and game and, in a particularly successful year in 2017, he boasted an excellent ratio of 56% of winners to runners and 5.19% black-type performers.
Areion’s sire, Big Shuffle, is by Super Concorde, a paternal half-brother to the US Triple Crown winner and leading sire Seattle Slew who hails from the Bold Reasoning branch of the Bold Ruler sire line. Big Shuffle proved himself one of the most important German sire imports of all time and, from really limited opportunities, his other sons Auenadler, Kalatos and Call Me Big have all managed to sire Group and Listed winners.
Areion’s dam is by Nijinsky’s French Derby winning son Caerleon, and she comes from the same female line as the leading sires Acropolis, Alycidon and Borealis. It should not go unmentioned that Big Shuffle worked very well with mares by Nijinsky and his sons, with Areion being the leading representative of that cross.
Alson’s own dam Assisi is by Galileo, and she also has the Group 2 German 2000 Guineas winner Ancient Spirit (by Invincible Spirit) to her credt.
The second dam is the unbeaten Group 1 Preis der Diana-German Oaks heroine Amarette, one of 22 top-level winners by the stellar sire Monsun, broodmare sire of 14 Group I winners and a further 38 Pattern winners to date. Amarette herself is also dam of the Group 3 winning Dubawi filly Amazona, while her half-sister Anatola produced the Group 1 Melbourne Cup hero Almandin to a mating with Monsun.
Alson’s third dam, Avocette won the Listed Festa-Rennen at Baden-Baden and, as her sire King’s Lake is a son of Nijinsky, she features the English Triple Crown winner 4x5 in her pedigree.
Her fourth dam is the Windwurf mare Akasma, a granddaughter of the Caro mare Amitie. She’s a half-sister to the (then) Group 3 German 1000 Guineas heroine Aviatik, this being the immediate damline of the charismatic 1970 Deutsches Derby hero and subsequent Champion Sire Alpenkönig who beat Allegretta’s sire, Lombard in the Derby before going on to to record a further three further top-level victories, including in the Grosser Preis von Baden against his elders.
Thus Assisi combines the proven Schlenderhan dam lines of Allegretta and Alpenlerche and Alson’s pedigree features a healthy combination of stamina and speed via traditional domestic bloodlines mixed with leading international sire lines
In another addition to the stallion ranks in Germany, Gestüt Röttgen will be retiring their homebred Group 1 Deutsches Derby winner Windstoss for the coming breeding season. A strongly made bay, Windstoss was campaigned from two to seven years, running 29 times and recording four victories. A winner at two, he matured nicely over the winter and made his winning seasonal reappearance in the Listed Derby Trial at Düsseldorf. He was then sent for the Listed Derby Trial at Hannover, but suffered a nasty fall in the race which he luckily survived without major injuries. His gutsy and game character became really obvious when, only a week later, he stayed on strongly to finish runner-up in the Group 2 Union-Rennen in Cologne – the most important Derby trial in Germany.
Windstoss then became the stud’s third homebred winner of the Group 1 Deutsches Derby in 2017. Subsequently he was not disgraced when fourth in the Group 1 Grosser Preis von Baden and he ended his three-year-old campaign with a second Group 1 victory in the Preis von Europa back at Cologne.
The Deutsches Derby hero Windstoss is shown notching up his second Group 1 victory in the Preis von Europa. His half brother, Weltstar, also won the Deutsches Derby, as did his sire, Shirocco (by Monsun).
In the following four seasons of his career, Windstoss was placed numerously in Group company, most notably third in top-level events like the Coronation Cup and Preis von Europa, as well as finishing fourth in the Prix du Cadran
Windstoss is the leading domestic performer sired by the Group 1 Deutsches Derby hero Shirocco who went on to international top-level victories in the Coronation Cup and Breeders’ Cup Turf. Shirocco is one of three Deutsches Derby winners sired by Monsun, nine of whose sons have sired a Group-winner on the flat. Shirocco himself has 19 Group winners on the flat to his credit, including six at the highest level, plus three Grade 1 winners over hurdles, headed by the great Annie Power. As a damsire, Shirocco has had six Group-winners to date, headed by this year’s Irish Derby and St. Leger hero Hurricane Lane and the triple Australian Group 1 winner Montefilia.
Shirocco’s dam, So Sedulous, is by the Northern Dancer horse The Minstrel, a brilliant chestnut and three-parts-brother to Nijinsky, whose four Group 1 victories came in the Dewhurst Stakes at two and the Epsom and Irish Derbies and King George VI & Queen Elizabeth Stakes at three.
Shirocco is a full-brother to the Stakes winners Subiaco, Storm Trooper and September Song, as well as to the Stakes producing Swish, this also being the family of the tough and game Group 1 winner Noble Dancer and the Group 1 Moyglare Stud Stakes heroine and producer Gala Event.
Windstoss is the first foal out of Wellenspiel whose sire, Sternkönig, was a Group 1 winner who finished third in the Deutsches Derby of 1993 behind Lando and Monsun, that crop of 1990 being one of the most outstanding in German thoroughbred history. Sternkönig is closely related to the 1975 Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe hero and sire Star Appeal, as well as to the leading National Hunt sire Strong Gale.
Wellenspiel went on to become one of only six mares to have produced two winners of the Deutsches Derby after her second foal, the Soldier Hollow colt Weltstar landed the race in 2018. The latter is now based at stud in France where his first foals are due next year.
The next dam is the (then) Listed Preis der Winterkönigin victrix Well Known, who was placed in the fillies’ Classics too and is by Monsun’s sire Königsstuhl which gives Windstoss a 3x3 inbreeding to Germany’s sole Triple Crown winner of 1979.
Well Known has been responsible for five Stakes performers, headed by the Group 1 Preis von Europa hero Well Made, and is related to the Group 3 Prix de Psyche winner Welluna, as well as to the (then) Group 1 Oaks d’Italia placegetter Well Minded (by Monsun). This family has also been represented by the Group 1 Nassau Stakes heroine Zahrat Dubai at the highest international level.
The third dam is the (then) Group 3 German 1000 Guineas winning Prince Ippi mare Well Proved, herself a paternal half-sister to Dalham Hall’s blue hen Anna Paola. Well Proved is out of the Tamerlane mare Well Tamed with Tamerlane, who features 5x5x5 in Windstoss’ pedigree, also being the sire of Königsstuhl’s sire Dschingis Khan, the aforementioned Derby hero Alpenkönig and the German Oaks heroine and prolific producer Idrissa.
Windstoss, a grandson of the great Monsun, is therefore a representative of the influential Königsstuhl sire line and hails from a highly prolific Röttgen family.
