by Myra Lewyn

After trips to Dubai, Hong Kong, and Italy this year, Gestut Fahrhof’s veteran world traveler Quijano (Ger) returns to racing in his native country of Germany where he will bid to follow up his victory in the Gran Premio de Milano (Ity-G1) last month in the $226,269 Deutschland Preis (Ger-G1) at Dusseldorf.

The six-year-old Acatenango gelding ended a five-race winless drought dating back to his triumph over Adlerflug and Egerton in the Grosser Pries von Baden (Ger-G1) in September 2007 when he scored a 1 ¼-length win over less accomplished albeit determined opponents in the Gran Premio de Milano on June 15 at San Siro Racecourse.

Regular jockey Andrasch Starke will be back aboard on Sunday in the 2,400-meter (11.93-furlong) Deutschland Preis in which Quijano, who is trained by Peter Schiergen, will again meet Adlerflug and Egerton among seven challengers.

Gestut Schlenderhan’s Adlerflug has not won in more than a year since stepping up to a classic victory in the BMW Deutsches Derby (Ger-G1) on July 1, 2007, after winning a stakes at Hannover last May.

The four-year-old In the Wings (GB) colt, trained by Jens Hirschberger, closed last season with his runner-up finish to Quijano at Baden-Baden. But in his only two starts this season, Adlerflug has only managed a third-place finish behind Egerton in the Idee Hansa-Pries (Ger-G2) on June 29.

Stall Reckendorf’s Egerton defeated It’s Gino by three-quarters of a length in the Hansa-Preis, a race he won in 2006. Trained by Peter Rau, the seven-year-old Groom Dancer horse will seek his first victory at the top level.

Stall 5-Stars’s It’s Gino won a Group 2 race at Baden-Baden on May 25 prior to his close finish in the Hansa-Preis. The five-year-old Perugino horse, trained by Pavel Vovcenko, is also in search of his first Group 1 victory.

Stall Reni’s Prince Flori looks for his first stakes since defeating Egerton in the 36 Grosser Mercedes-Benz-Preis (Ger-G2) last May.

Other entrants include French Group 2 winner Anton Chekov, who finished third in the German Derby; Little Fighter, who is multiple group-placed but who has yet to earn a stakes victory; and multiple stakes-placed Prinz.

 Myra Lewyn is a Thoroughbred Times Today editor