Wiener Walzer upset his favored stablemate Suestado and gave the storied breeding farm Gestut Schlenderhan its 18th victory in the Deutsches Derby (Ger-I) at Hamburg July 5.
Swedish rider Fredrik Johansson earned his second win in the German Derby in the past three years, winning each time for trainer Jens Hirschberger's less fancied runner.
Johansson guided the forwardly spotted Wiener Walzer to the lead with more than three-sixteenths of a mile to run and the son of Dynaformer drove to a 1 1/4-length victory over Sordino, who rallied for second. The final time for the 1 1/2-mile event was 2:29.56 over good going.
It was an especially meaningful victory for the 140-year-old Gestut Schlenderhan. The farm's owner, Baroness Karin von Ullmann, dubbed "the grande dame of the turf" by the German press, died June 1 at the age of 87. She was the great-granddaughter of Eduard von Oppenheim, who founded the stud in 1869.
Gestut Schlenderhan, Hirschberger and Johansson teamed to win the German Derby with Adlerflug in 2007.
Toughness Danon finished a neck behind Sordino in third, with Eliot a neck further back in fourth. Suestado was held up toward the rear while keeping in touch of the field but dropped back and was eased in the straight by jockey Adrie de Vries.
"We have not discussed plans for the winner and we're still trying to find out what went wrong with Suestado," Hirschberger told reporters afterward.
The winner is a bay colt out of the Kingmambo mare Walzerkeonigin.