Quite near the end of November, I wondered whether I had anything to write for my monthly newsletter, and whether I should just offer a short apology instead of a newsletter this time, or even write nothing – on the assumption that almost no-one would notice.

Words rarely fail me for long, however. After all, there are some things I report on regularly, like the weather in the previous month, and Czech-trained horses running abroad. In addition, by reading through the Czech horseracing websites I have found a few things that I hope are of interest, in particular a long interview with Jiří Charvát, after his first season as the new president of the Czech Jockey Club.

The weather this November was remarkably warm. In the lower-lying parts of Prague there was no frost at all, and there were even a few very pleasant sunny days. However, November is basically a dull and foggy month here, with relentlessly shortening days. This year, at least, it was not cold.

Several of our trainers have taken advantage of the mild conditions, and have kept a few horses in training and run them abroad. In November 2014, Czech-trained horses ran abroad with some success. They appeared in France (Marseille – Pont des Vivaux. Chantilly, Lyon – Parilly, Lyon – La Soie, Auteuil, Strasbourg, St Cloud and Fontainebleu), in Italy (Grosseto, Milano), in Germany (Dresden), in Hungary (Budapest) and in Austria (Ebreichsdorf).

It was announced at the end of November that there will be no racing at Ebreichsdorf next year, though the course will remain open for other equestrian events. This will mean no horse-racing in Austria next year, unless Vienna – Freudenau reopens. Ebreichsdorf was opened only about 10 years ago, as a casino/racecourse, but the business model that works well for Frank Stronach in the USA has not been a success for him in his native Austria, where he seems not to have the contacts necessary to establish a business based on synergies between a casino and a racecourse. I have not visited Ebreichsdorf, and it never sounded very attractive to me. Nevertheless, the loss of the only racecourse in Austria is of course worrying. I will make time in the next few days to translate the article about Ebreichsdorf published on the Dostihovy svět Czech-language pages.

There is always plenty of good stuff about Czech horseracing in Czech language on the internet nowadays. In November, for example, there was a long interview with Jiří Charvát made by Martin Cáp that appears on the Jockey Club of the Czech Republic website. http://www.dostihy.cz/cz/slovo-ma/article/248/jiri-charvat-sezona-byla-dobra-ted-otevirame-dalsi-temata.html. This is a long, in-depth interview, in which Martin poses searching questions and Jiří Charvát answers them head-on.

Jiří Charvát was elected president of the Jockey Club for a two-year period in February 2014. He has only been in Czech racing for not much more than ten years, in which time he (his company) has been one of our biggest and most successful owners. His company is also a leading sponsor of horseracing here and in Slovakia, which is an important market for the company. Although Jiří Charvát’s relationship with Czech horseracing is mainly as an owner of numerous good and expensive horses, his name also appears as a horsebreeder, most notably above the name of Natalie, winner of the Czech Steeplechase Association Prize on Velka Pardubicka day in 2013. Natalie is by Tribal Instinct out of Nostalgia, both of which ran with distinction here in Charvát colours. He also sponsors the Dostihový svět website.

In the interview on the Jockey Club website, Jiří Charvát feels no need to claim great achievements in his first months as president of the JCCR, or to make extravagant promises for the future. We all know that 2014 could have been a very difficult season of conflict between the new people in power at the JCCR and the ancien régime, and between the racecourses and the JCCR. In February and March it was not clear that our season would start on time, and there was a serious threat that some racedays would be lost. The new regime can justifiably claim to have acted non-confrontationally, and to have made successful efforts to bring the racing family together and to ensure that racing went ahead.  

In the event, all meetings took place as planned, and there were even a few extra days. More races were held in 2014 than in 2013.  For Jiří Charvát, and for most of us, a pleasing aspect of the season was that more and more Czech-owned and Czech-trained horses have been able to run with distinction in black-type races run outside the country. Including, by the way, a horse owned by a small syndicate including the interviewer, Martin Cáp, whose sprinter, Mikesh, was only narrowly beaten into second place in the Hoppegartener Fliegerpreis at Berlin Hoppegarten in August.

Jiří Charvát would like to raise the international profile of Czech racing. He noted that some of the smaller associations make their voice heard better than the Czech voice. For example, Marián Šurda, long-time president of the Slovak Jockey Club, is a well-known personality who makes sure that Slovak interests are voiced internationally. The Scandinavians act as a group, and their voice is heard. The Vysehrad countries – the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia – have collaborated in the past as a central European grouping, and should in future present their interests cooperatively.  

Jiří Charvát, like most of us, regrets that we have no black-type races in the Czech Republic. It is not possible to rectify that situation right away, as black-type status has to be earned by the quality of the runners attracted for a race over a period of years. Jiří Charvát speaks of at least beginning to build up some races for future black-type status here. This would be done most comfortably, of course, by attracting some new sponsorship for a small number of high-status races – not by taking away prizemoney from lower-grade races, which also need at least to be maintained at their present level.

Jiří Charvát regrets the small number of 2-y-os that ran here in 2014, and the lack of attractive races for them. Most of our top 3-y-os are nowadays bought abroad after their 2-y-o season. Czech breeders have difficulty selling their yearlings. The problem is clear: breeders everywhere make their money from selling highly promising yearlings with good papers, and they more or less have to give away, or at least sell at a loss, unpromising yearlings and yearlings with moderate papers. Since most Czech breeders only produce foals with moderate papers, they cannot seriously hope to sell even a good-looking yearling for a fancy price. There have been several very useful Czech breds in the last year or two: for example, Taggerton, 3rd in the Czech Derby in 2013 and winner of the Slovak St Leger; Aztek, 3rd in the Czech St Leger this year, and Love Me, winner of the Slovak  Derby this year. These are very nice horses. However, they do not have great papers, and will have been bought relatively inexpensively. (Taggerton and Love Me’s sire, Egerton, is now establishing himself as a respectable sire for stayers.)

Jiří Charvát would also like to see some attractive sprint races here. He is right, of course. However, we can never have serious sprint races until we have a straight six furlong course. It would not be satisfactory to have a championship sprint at Velka Chuchle, where a full curve begins less than 300 metres from the start.       

Changes were introduced just before the beginning of the 2014 season in so-called owners’ prizes, for owners of Czech-bred horses. The changes meant that the racecourses were able to retain the fairly considerable money that they had in recent years had to contribute to owners’ prizes. Jiří Charvát had wanted the racecourses to return some of this money to the owners, in the form of higher prize money or less steep charges for entries+declarations. In reality, the racecourses appear to have retained the money, and have taken the rare opportunity to spend something substantial on improving the racecourse facilities. It seems to me that our racecourses have been in improved shape this year. 2014 has been an outstandingly good year for grass, by Czech standards. Prague Velka Chuchle is in remarkably good shape after being flooded in June 2013. Pardubice, too, has been carefully improved. Lysa-nad-Labem is coming along well. I am not an expert on racecourse facilities, but I suggest Czech racecourses have rarely been in such satisfactory condition as in 2014.

Our racehorse owners have again more or less funded the whole sport this year, and we should be grateful that they have chosen this way of redistributing their wealth. It is certainly an effective way for them to get rid of their excess funds!