Germany Beckons for Unbeaten Va Bank

Poland's Horse of the Year and Triple Crown winner from 2015, Va Bank (Ire) (Archipenko) won Sunday for the 11th time in as many career trips to the post and will get his passport stamped for the first time to try deeper waters in the G3 Preis der Sparkassen Finanzgruppe at Baden-Baden Aug. 27.

Making his third start of the season and cutting back from his most recent win over 2600m July 3, Va Bank was away in good order from gate one and raced handier to the pace than is his custom, but found himself shuffled back to near the back of the pack into the far turn. Legitimately last as they cornered for home, Va Bank was produced through a razor-thin space between rivals and showed a remarkable turn of speed to put the race to bed within a handful of strides. VIDEO

NAGRODA KOZIENIC (N), ZL57,750, Tor Sluzewiec, 7-31, 3yo/up, 2000mT, 2:03.90, gd.
1–VA BANK (IRE), 132, c, 4, Archipenko–Vinales (Ire), by
Dilshaan (GB). (€4,500 Ylg '13 TATIRE). O-J P Zienkiewicz,
B Abdrakhmanov & M Janikowski; B-Airlie Stud; T-M
Janikowski; J-M Brezina; ZL33,000. Lifetime Record: Horse of
the Year, Triple Crown Winner & Hwt. 2yo & Ch. 3yo-Pol,
11-11-0-0, ZL519,500.
2–Newerly (Pol), 132, g, 4, Jape–Niacyna (Pol), by Two-Twenty-
Two (Ire). ZL13,200.
3–Langfuhr (Fr), 119, c, 3, Soldier of Fortune (Ire)–Lady
Sylvester, by Elusive Quality. (€8,000 Ylg '14 ARQNOV).
ZL6,600.
Margins: 4HF, 1 3/4, 3/4.