Invincible Spirit Colt Romps In German Guineas

[Wandering Eyes]

There was little evidence in the previous efforts of Ancient Spirit (Ger) (Invincible Spirit {Ire}) that he was going to pull off some serious pryotechnics in Monday’s G2 Mehl-Mulhens-Rennen, but none were left in any doubt afterwards that Cologne’s German 2000 Guineas had gone to the best colt by far. Twice caught late on in maidens over 6 1/2 furlongs here on debut in September and over seven at Hannover Apr. 2, the bay had been a non-threatening distant fifth in the G3 Preis des Winterfavoriten over this track and trip in October and notably workmanlike when getting off the mark in the Furstenberg-Rennen also over seven furlongs at this venue last time Apr. 24. There was a moment at the business end of that conditions event, as he pulled an unlikely victory out of the bag, that suggested the homebred had more ability than he was willing to show and he was sporting blinkers for the first time here with Jean-Pierre Carvalho seeking to unlock that potential. Within two furlongs, jockey Filip Minarik knew the headgear was releasing something different as the 21-1 shot was impossible to contain and he duly allowed him to circle the entire field and take control at the head of affairs. Clear entering the straight, he was chased hard by the British raider Fajjaj (Ire) (Dawn Approach {Ire}) but it was the Ancient Spirit show all the way as he maintained a relentless gallop to inflict a 4 1/2-length defeat on that useful challenger, with 1 1/2 lengths back to fellow Brit and solid yardstick Fighting Irish (Ire) (Camelot {GB}) in third.

ANCIENT SPIRIT (GER), c, 3, Invincible Spirit (Ire)–Assisi (Ger), by Galileo (Ire). O-Stall Ullmann; B-Gestut Schlenderhan (GER); T-Jean-Pierre Carvalho; J-Filip Minarik. Lifetime Record: 5-2-2-0, €110,900.

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