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Local boy Andrasch Starke returned to the Hamburg winner's enclosure after partnering Nutan to an easy success in the German Derby amid scenes of jubilation.

"I was born near here," said the jockey. "And it always gives me the biggest thrill of all to win this race."

It was his seventh Deutsches Derby success and the fifth for trainer Peter Schiergen, who saddled five in the race but had always made it clear that Nutan was his main contender. The winner, owned and bred in Ireland by Juergen Imm's Stall Nizza, was second favourite at 33-10.

The disappointment of the race was 19-10 favourite Shimrano, trained by Paul Harley, who never got into contention and finished 11th of the 18 runners. "He was never firing today," reported jockey Adrie de Vries. "I knew he had no chance from a long way out."

Starke was drawn right on the inside rail and was quickly away, but Jack Mitchell on 72-1 shot Koffi Prince was even quicker and grabbed the lead, with Nutan happy to bowl along in second.

Koffi Prince still led two furlongs out but Nutan, clearly going best of all on the rail, took over and was soon two lengths clear of a bunched pack before going right away in the final furlong to score by five lengths.

Both William Buick on Schiergen's Nordic Flight and Rab Havlin on Areo seemed to be in with a chance, but the former dropped out tamely, while the latter kept on at one pace to finish fourth.

Instead it was Eddy Hardouin on the supplemented Palace Prince who came out of the pack to go second - the second successive runner-up in the race for veteran trainer Andreas Lowe.

Andreas Wohler, who had the misfortune to see both his fancied runners miss the race through injury, was still happy with his charges, Fair Mountain in third and Oisin Murphy's mount Rogue Runner, who ran on late for fifth.

However, it was a one horse race in the final stages. Schiergen, who was always confident of a strong showing, said: "He had a dream run. I have not really thought about future plans, but the Group 1 races at Hoppegarten and Baden-Baden are an obvious possibility."

Starke added: "He was always going so well, I knew I had the race won coming into the straight. I would have made the running myself if necessary, but the lead horse was perfect for me."