Tom Cannon will ride Peintre Abstrait
When information given on the Czech language pages of Dostihový svět clashes with the information given on the English pages, it is a safe bet that the Czech pages have got it right. Our editor, Petr Guth, has spoken with Peintre Abstrait’s trainer, Radek Holčák, who declared that UK top-twenty jumps jockey Tom Cannon will take the ride on Peintre Abstrait, and not Polish jockey, Dominik Pastuszka, as I had announced earlier.
Three names had come into consideration as a replacement for Lukáš Matuský, who suffered an injury at Maienfeld (Switzerland) last weekend: Cevin Chan, who recently rode the winner of the Gran Premio di Merano, Dominik Pastuszka, and Tom Cannon. “Tom Cannon contacted me before last year’s Velka Pardubicka, and expressed great interest in riding at Pardubice, also in qualification races. Now we are happy that the contact had been made.”
Radek Holčák is aware that Tom Cannon has no experience of riding at Pardubice. He will ride only in the Velka. He will arrive on Friday, and will give all his attention to getting ready for the big race. “Of course, experience of riding at Pardubice is hard to replace, but we will have a jockey who knows how to ride over fences. He should be able to transfer that knowledge to Pardubice racecourse.”
Holčák is happy with Peintre Abstrait’s preparation for the race, but concedes that he is not a supertalented horse. He has set more modest aims than some of his trainer colleagues. “I’d like the horse and jockey to form a partnership with each other in those minutes in the paddock, to get on with each other and run a good and high-quality race.”
Though very well beaten, Peintre Abstrait picked up some nice prizemoney (CzK 350 000) for finishing 5th in VP 2013. However, he was very well beaten, and finished only a neck in front of the last horse to complete the course. If he manages to get round on Sunday, and if a lot of better horses do not, who knows what might happen. He is currently on offer at just 30:1, which is a very poor price for a horse that is, frankly, a complete outsider.