Trainer Grzegorz Witold Wroblewski will be forever remembered in the annals of the Velka Pardubicka as the trainer who prepared Orphée des Blins for her hat-trick of wins in the race. Before this year’s race, the horses that he trains have produced some good form, but Greg’s name is not to be found in the list of trainers for this year’s race. Nevertheless, he has spent recent weeks preparing two of the participants. Irish trainer Peter Maher has entrusted him with his horses Jet Fighter and Alpha Male, to have them tuned up in the Czech Republic for the Velka Pardubicka!

Even if the horses that Greg trains have not won any big races this year, second place in the Gran Premio at Merano sends out a positive signal, and anyone looking for an indication of the stable’s form can see that in their last twenty runs his horses have won six times, and only three of the finishes have been outside the first five. “It’s not that they’ve come into miraculous form. It just shows that we train our horses all season to maintain their form and keep going.”

This is the philosophy with which he has been preparing the Irish runners in this year’s Velka.  “It was a bit of a challenge to take these horses and start preparing them five weeks after we came to our new environment,” he says. [Greg moved in August to the training centre next to the Albertovec Stud] “We have excellent conditions and people here, so I’m very happy for the moment, though it always takes some time to settle into a new environment,” says Wroblewski, clearly well satisfied with the excellent opportunities offered at Albertovec.

“I got to know the Irish horses from scratch only after they’d run at Pardubice,” he adds “I think they’ve made some progress in these five weeks. They are horses with some experience over fences, and they are fitter than they were five weeks ago. However, it’s difficult for me to say how they’ll do in the Velka. Personally, I’ll be pleased if they show some progress since their last race. It’s clear that they’ll have plenty to do in the Velka.”

He says that his collaboration with the Irish trainer has been working out very well. “I take it as a honour that an experienced trainer has had confidence in me and in my training methods. The participation of the Irish horses in the Velka is good news for the race and for the spectators. International competition is welcome at Pardubice. The Irish connections don’t counting on winning the Velka, but they are certainly interesting horses. Alpha Male is a horse with his own head, and everything has to suit him if he’s to give an ideal performance. And Jet Fighter? He isn’t such a distinct character. He’s a young horse, and this will be his first race over such a distance. We’ll see how he handles it.”

Petr Tůma, who rode Jet Fighter at Pardubice last time out, will this time be in the saddle of his older fellow-traveller (Alpha Male), and the younger horse will be ridden by Irish jockey O’Keefe. “Marek Stromský [who rode Alpha Male in the race at Pardubice] has been engaged to ride Star in the Velka, a runner with some higher ambition, and Petr Tůma has been riding Alpha Male and believes in him, so that’s what we decided on,” explains Wroblewski. He would like Star to have a good run in the Velka, but he thinks the biggest players in the race are Sacamiro and Argano.  

This article was written by Dostihý svět editor Petr Guth, and first appeared today on our Czech language pages. Translated by Robin.