In the course of his long career, Jan Rája rode in more than three thousand races and won 523 times. He was three times the Czech champion jockey on the flat, rode the winner of nine classic races, including the Czech Derby in 2011 on Roches Cross. He also rode three times in the Velka Pardubicka, in which his best finish was in eighth place on Fahrenheit in 2003. In 2021, Jan Rája, the most successful jockey in the quarter of a century history of racing at Most racecourse, and one of the most distinct personalities in Czech flat racing, definitively left the weighing room to dedicate himself fully to preparing horses for the Nieslanik family. This is the family for which he served for several years as assistant trainer, and which he decided to leave a month ago after a clash of opinions.

This interview, in which Dostihový svět’s long-term stalwart Jana Šejnohová speaks with Jan Rája, one of the most successful Czech flat jockeys of all time, who ended his riding career a year ago, first appeared in Dostihový svět n September 22^nd, 2022.

You worked for four years at Tušimice in the yard of Dr Eva Nieslaniková. What did that work do for you?

What did it give me? Experience with horses. And how it affects them when you approach them individually and with love. I also had an opportunity to try out my own system for training, and I was able to confirm that it works.

Your words about a well-functioning training system are confirmed not only by the results of Ponntos, a group race winner at Longchamp that also ran in a prestigious sprint race in the royal meeting at Ascot, but also by a number of other horses…

Ponntos is an outstanding horse. I’ve ridden him since he was a youngster. You can say that we grew up together, and we learned from each other. He doesn’t have an easy temperament, and it was a bit of a challenge to work with him, but he was the one who taught me how necessary it is to work individually with each horse.

You accompanied Ponntos on each of his appearances abroad. Which of the trips was the most memorable?

Ascot, for sure. It is a fantastic experience. If I compare it with another sport, it is something like the Premier League. It is all about high cards, and you can’t get away with the slightest mistake. The whole meeting is special, with a character like Czech Derby day, in the times when I was the champion jockey. It was a day when there were only big races, the Napajedla Stud Stakes for fillies, the top race for sprinters, the top race for Czech stayers, the top race for milers, and the Simson Stakes for the best early two-year-olds. At Ascot it is a level higher – an electrifying atmosphere, splendidly dressed people. There’s nothing like it anywhere, except perhaps the Arc meeting in Paris.

The participation of Ponntos at Goodwood at the end of July was also prestigious…

At Goodwood you can win, if you have a good horse. In general, trips abroad for big races are a great experience for us Czechs. We were shut in for decades, and we didn’t see anything. Royal Ascot and the Arc were things that we might be able to read about in the papers or see a bit of on Czech television. But to be there in person adds a completely different dimension.

Before the sprinter Ponntos travelled twice to the British Isles, he won a Group 3 race in France. Can comparisons be made in some ways between these two mature horseracing countries?

The most basic difference is in travelling to them. Going to France is certainly easier, because France is in the European Union. That makes travelling more relaxed. If you want to run in England, you have to go through great sufferings.  A horse that is going to run there has to travel well in order to come through. The crossing, waiting for papers, veterinary checks and other documents, all of which have to be done.

In the training centre in north Bohemia, you had your first opportunity to try working as a trainer, for which you have the required licence. Haven’t you now been considering from your position as a rider and a coach the possibility of setting up as an independent trainer?

The situation in Czech horseracing is not good. There are fewer owners, and only the big owners are in good shape. It’s not possible now for me to jump into the water, buy my own yard, borrow money to set up my own training centre. Almost no trainer has the necessary money, and all of that can only be done under the wing of a big owner. If an interesting offer came along I might go for it. But taking on the risk myself and taking a leap in the dark, with my views on how it might all turn out – that would not be something for me. Maybe I’m too rational for something like that.

At the end of the 2021 season, on October 24^th, to be exact, at Prague Velká Chuchle racecourse, you finished your successful career with a winning ride on Lexceed. Don’t you miss riding in races?

It’s true that I was sad at first, but I’ve gradually got used to it. When a good jockey is riding for you, you’ve done a good job as a trainer, and you’ve chosen the ideal race for your horse, it’s quite enough, and you feel pleased with your work.

We are well into the second half of the racing season, and two women are in the top places in the flat jockeys’ championship. What can you say about that?

It is absolutely a Czech trend. It couldn’t happen anywhere else in the world. This is the way it is in Czech horseracing. This is the situation. And the girls, with their persistence and determination, are outshining the boys who can ride a bit. That’s how I see it.

October is coming, and so is the Velka Pardubicka, the high point of the Czech jumps racing season, which you rode in three times. Do you follow our jumps racing, and what is your favourite for this year’s race?

To tell you the truth, I don’t follow it at all. It passes me by. A few days ago, I spoke with Honza Faltejsek, who is injured, and a few weeks ago I spoke with Pepa Bartoš, who was getting back into shape after a big injury. Jumps racing is a hard life for people and also for horses. Nevertheless, I know that the Velka is a milestone. Everybody follows the race, everyone expresses their opinion, and a month before the race people start counting down the days. The attention given by the public to the race grows, and because I rode in the race myself I know how hard this period of time is for the riders, the trainers and the owners. It is the high point of the season, and it still has its weight. I hope all the participants in the race will take part with happiness and with honour, but I really can’t tip the winner.

After leaving Tušimice things have settled down a bit for you. Where are you working at the moment, and how do you see your future? 

I’m working for Inka Janáčková-Koplíková in Lysá nad Labem. It’s a professional stable with plenty of promising young horses and a number of horses that run only in France. Inka and Mario are leading the stable in that direction, aiming to do well abroad and also in first category races here. I’ve only been with them for two weeks, which is too short a time for me to weigh things up. Nevertheless, I can see that they are going for their target. For me, this work is a chance to calm down. I am at last able to get my head round things properly, set my priorities, and decide what I want to do in the future, and what I don’t want to do. I might stay here for the next ten years, and I might leave tomorrow. That’s how it is for us people around horses. We’re like comedians, who perform in Prague today and in Brno tomorrow. Something different each day. These days, if you are an electrician you can find perhaps ten companies in the town that will take you on. But if you are a jockey and you want to carry out your profession, there are really few opportunities to do the job.

Although you’ve worked in a number of Czech yards, this is your first job at Lysá nad Labem. How do you see this training centre, which everyone sings the praises of?

It is a kind of Czech Deauville. The stables are past their best years and need reconstructing, but the racetrack is very well maintained, and there are wonderful long gallops in the forest. You can gallop there for five kilometres at a time – I last saw something like that in the days when I used to ride in the Velka.

There were recently reports in the media that trainer Ingrid Janáčková-Koplíková was going to move to Krabčice…

 The move to Krabčice is on hold at the moment. The gallops at Krabčice first need to be worked on, and preparations are being made for that. Mário (the trainer’s assistant and partner) has five horses in France, to which six more will soon be added, and part of the staff will move over there for winter preparation. Will I be one of them? Probably not, but that does not worry me. I’m a patriot, I like the Czech Republic. You can see that from the number of races that I rode in, and the number of winners that I rode here at home.