Last year after Longines' elegant event (can we link to my story from 9.5.11 here?), I reported how I kept betting on jockey Andrasch Starke in the wrong races. Learning from my mistakes, I bet on him when it counted. As did the stall that brought Danedream to Iffezheim, Germany's premier horse racing event.
Over the weekend, I kept thinking of how Danedream's story reminded me a lot of Seabiscuit, the horse who made it to Hollywood. A German thoroughbred racehorse who no one wanted at the beginning (her eventual owners only paid € 9,000 for her), four-year-old Danedream is the most successful racehorse to ever come from Germany. Her races were chiefly won in 2011 and 2012. This past weekend she raced for the last time in Iffezheim: apparently racehorses retire at the zenith of their careers.
This is all great news for Longines, as the interest surrounding Danedream led the main Iffezheim race called the Grosser Preis von Baden – in which Longines offered a total of 250,000 euros and the prize of honor, including a watch, to the winners – to be nationally and internationally televised, preempting even soccer on German television.
Grand Prix for a Hat
The Iffezheim week is a highpoint of the social calendar in the Germany's Baden in addition to being the most important event on Germany's horseracing calendar. In addition to participating in the grand prix ball celebrating the sporting occasion, Longines, the event's timing partner, also awarded the Longines Prize for Elegance to the most elegant female visitor to the races. As you probably know, hats are grand tradition at equestrian sporting events, one that is also honored in Germany. Congratulations to Ines Wallraff for going home with a timepiece from the Saint-Imier Collection as well as a beautifully sunny day at the races.
