For the big favorite So Moonstruck with jockey world star Frankie Dettori only third place remained.

Others won the blue ribbon at the 153rd German Derby on the Hamburg-Horn racecourse: 73:10 co-favorite Sammarco, ridden by champion jockey Bauyrzhan Murzabayev, crossed the finish line first in front of 12,500 spectators.

The stallion secured success in the most exciting finish of recent years and gave the Cologne trainer Peter Schiergen his sixth derby victory.

Sammarco prevailed in front of the big outsider Schwarzer Peter with Andreas Helfenbein as well as Dettori and Favorit So Moonstruck.

At the finish, only a short head separated the top three, as they say in the technical jargon.

The outcome of the derby hasn't been this close for a long time.

"He's a really good horse, we had the perfect race," commented winning trainer Schiergen, who looks after Sammarco for Helmut von Finck's Park Wiedingen stud.

“We have been breeding racehorses for 35 years.

A dream has come true for us,” reported von Finck, moved.

Sammarco's owner and breeder received a race prize of 390,000 euros.

The total endowment for the best-known and most important race in Germany was 650,000 euros.

Champion jockey Murzabayev was happy about his first derby victory.

"I hardly have words," said the native Kazakh, stunned.

For the 29-year-old it is the biggest victory in the racing saddle.

"I'm really proud of the horse.

We had a perfect race.” Sammarco had traveled to Hamburg with a win in the Union race in Cologne, the most important derby test.

He had won there before So Moonstruck.

Now he also triumphed in the derby.

"If he can keep the form, he's a horse for the big races," said Schiergen about the future of the derby winner.

The second Schiergen horse in the race, Nerik ridden by Sibylle Vogt, finished fifth.

A woman is still waiting for her first derby win.

Hollie Doyle, second rider in the field from England, came eleventh with daring.

The race started 25 minutes late.

The track at the starting point was too narrow for 20 horses in the starting boxes arranged next to each other.

Boundary rails first had to be dismantled before the derby could start.

Some horses remained unperturbed in the waiting phase in the blazing sun, others became restless.

However, according to experts, this did not have any impact on the outcome of the race.