Saddadd Wins the 2026 Baden Grand Prix; Two Horses Die in Iffezheim

The Irish stallion Giavellotto by Mastercraftsman had been considered the favorite to win the Baden Grand Prix. The seven-year-old chestnut has already won Group I and II races in Hong Kong and Ascot. But yesterday was not his day. He finished fourth, while an Anglo-French duel played out at the front of the pack.

At the finish line of the 2,400-meter race, amid the cheers of 18,000 spectators, the four-year-old Saddadd—based in England—rode by jockey Jack Mitchell prevailed over Parachutiste, ridden by Clement Lecoeuvre from France. The top German horse was the three-year-old Bright Light, ridden by Benjamin Marie and trained by Andreas Suborics.

For Saddadd, based in Newmarket—where he is trained by Roger Varian for Sheikh Ahmed al Maktoum—this was his fifth victory in ten starts. And his first over 2,400 meters, as an overjoyed jockey Jack Mitchell reported. “He handled it brilliantly.”

You could certainly say that. For Mitchell, it was the biggest success of his career so far. “I’ve never won a Group I race like this before; I’ve often finished second and third, but never in first place.”

Suborics Has Big Plans

Andreas Suborics, trainer of Germany’s top horse Bright Light, analyzed his three-year-old star’s race: “At the start, the pace on the fast track was too fast for him. That’s why he wasn’t in the desired position. Benjamin Marie gave him time while he was in last place. Over the final 300 meters, Bright Light was the fastest horse. He would have performed even better on a soft track.”

And he held out the prospect of something big: “If he stays healthy, we’ll be heading to the Arc.”

The “Arc” refers to the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe. It is one of the greatest classics in horse racing, on par with the Kentucky Derby and the Epsom Derby. Since 1920, this race has been held at the Paris Longchamps racetrack in the Bois du Boulogne, always on the first weekend in October, and now offers prize money of around 7 million euros.

Racetrack Management Happy—

Stephan Buchner, the managing director of Baden Galopp, was generally pleased with how the “Big Week” concluded, but: “We had great racing, we had a fantastic atmosphere—everything was actually great—except for Tuesday with the two accidents, which of course was a major downer this week,” Buchner said in an interview with SWR.

What had happened? Two horses died on that Tuesday. One died in a racing accident in which it broke its pastern and, as a result, had to be euthanized. The other suffered a ruptured aorta and died.

Baden-Galopp was founded six years ago. Since then, 5,000 horses have galloped around the track and four have died, says Buchner. Statistically, that is very few, “but no less regrettable.”

See

. In fact, the death toll figures from racetracks across the U.S. tell a different story. In the early 2020s, there was a public outcry because 42 horses died between December 2018 and January 2020 at the Santa Anita racetrack in California—the site where the 2028 Olympic Games are scheduled to take place. At Churchill Downs, home of the Kentucky Derby, twelve horses died within a single month in 2023.

In 2020, the “Horse Racing Integrity and Safety Authority (HISA)” was founded, a private organization that introduced standardized safety and anti-doping measures for horse racing in the United States—with success, according to the organization. In 2022, the measures mandated by HISA were put into practice. In 2025, the organization reported a historic low in fatalities of 1.04 per 1,000 races.

At the time, race officials had launched an investigation into the cause