Saarbrücken: Winner of the Turf Championship South West

It has been a decent racing days but no win but I'm rather happy with several places.

In the first race I was booked again by Uwe Schwinn for Fuscano in an age for weight race over 2.400m. Third place was ok, I guess we can be happy with that. I don't think there was more in it. I did a penalty of 50 Euro, because I pushed my colleague Rene into the bushes. Obviously it was not on purpose, it just happenend accidentally. Rene took it rather easy and did not make any fuss. He knows that this is not my style of riding. I just did realize that I moved in too early.

Horst Rudolph gave me Gold Prize again. This season I was able to ride almost any horse from his yard. We did win at Lebach and was expecting a good result, because Goldi is in great form. Horst told me last Saturday if I win again on Goldi he will lead the Turf Championship Southwest for trainers: And if I'm able to stay ahead of Fabian I would be winning the Championship for riders. I must admit I wasn't aware that I had such a good chance to win it as in the first races nothing went according to plan. To cut the story short: Goldi finished runner-up beaten by a better horse on the day. A pity for Horst as he did not manage to win the Championship. Stefan Birner not just took the Championship for trainers but also for owners. Well done Stefan!

For Darius Racing I rode the well fancied Eskandar. Racing Manager Holger was not completely happy with my ride and what he told me afterwards made sense. But when I was riding the race looked different to me. But I'm happy to accept criticism. My feeling was - this a green horse, he is not a good starter. In my view he lost a lot at the start already. During the race he showed a good galopp. If he stays tuned he will be a good. In the moment he is still a baby who needs time.

My last race was on Heraclius in handicap (Agl. III) over 1.900m. And he did not disappoint, but he did not like the loose ground. So fourth place was a good result. Hans and Sonja as owner and trainer agreed with me.

But I'm now Champion of the Southwest. For two years I was trying very hard and expected to win but now without any expectations I do win :-)