The February newsletter can be the hardest for me to start writing. The previous season is far in the past, and the coming season still seems far away. During the season, I am in weekly contact with horses and racing, as there is rarely a weekend when I do not go to the races. In winter, I have to make an effort to remain in any kind of direct contact at all.

I mainly read three websites, in Czech language. Of course, I read our own Czech-language pages http://www.dostihovy-svet.cz/cs. I also read the Fitmin Turf pages www.dostihy.fitmin.cz/, and the Galopp Reporter web pages http://www.galopp-reporter.cz/. I have not yet got into horseracing on Facebook, or into twittering and tweeting. It simply takes up too much time, and contains too much uninformed opinion. I also do not regularly read Tipařův palec (Tipster‘s Thumb) http://www.tiparuvpalec.cz/. A lifetime of unsuccessful betting has left me without hope that I will at last become smarter than the bookmaker, or that any tipster will make my betting experience profitable. Nevertheless, Tipster’s Thumb has for a long time been a lively Czech-based horseracing website with some interesting and well-informed opinions, not only on what might win future races.

At the end of January 2017, the next Czech horseracing season is less than 9 weeks away. However, we have had a very wintry January, with hard frosts just about every night. Even in the parts of Prague where I spend my time, the temperature has remained below or just about zero every day in January. There have been plenty of days with an inversion, when it is sunny and warm in the uplands and mountains, and cold and grey elsewhere. Skiers have had a wonderful month here, and I don’t begrudge them it. On television they showed youngsters practicing their loop-the-loops on skis and snowboards, and being airlifted to hospital with nasty injuries. What with injuries from skiing, from driving on icy roads, from us old folks losing our balance and falling, and various other accidents and acts of violence, there seem to be plenty of people in plaster at the moment. It could happen to any of us, and I hope everyone will make a good and quick recovery.

Perhaps I should at this point put in a good word for casualty departments in Czech hospitals and polyclinics. They get plenty of experience, have good equipment, and do a good job. Our jockeys often express their gratitude to them. Dr Brož, head of the accident and emergency department at Pardubice hospital, makes a point of being on duty on Pardubice racedays. He is exactly the person you would hope to see when you come round after a really bad accident. Josef Váňa has nothing but good to say about the hospital in Plzeň. In my daytime job as a university International officer, I can get involved when an incoming exchange student needs treatment after an accident. In my quite long experience, our students have consistently received excellent treatment. In two particularly grave cases, the students made a much better recovery than had at first seemed at all likely.

As I look out of the window and see a wintry scene again, it seems unlikely that everything will be ready for the new Czech season, which begins on Sunday, April 2nd at Prague Velká Chuchle. However, it is a miracle every year how vigorously the grass grows just as soon as it has an opportunity, and the racecourse in Prague is normally just about ready for racing on the first Sunday in April.

Last year, we lost the first two meetings at Prague Velká Chuchle, due to a dispute between the Czech Jockey Club and the racecourses. The race conditions for the 2017 season have already been published on http://www.dostihyjc.cz/dostihy.php, and everything is expected to go ahead this year. The traditional main race on the opening day is the Gomba Handicap, over 1200 metres for 4-y-o and older. In the past, there was racing at Prague Velká Chuchle every weekend in spring and autumn (except the Sunday before the Derby and the second Sunday in October, which is Velka Pardubicka day). This year, there are some blank Sundays when regular Prague racegoers like myself will have to travel out of town for racing, or stay at home and carry out domestic tasks under the instructions of our respective wives!

When winter comes round, writers on Czech racing discuss ways of extending our season. We agree that it is necessary to do so. Professional trainers and riders cannot happily handle a five-month break between the end of October and the beginning of April. As mentioned in earlier newsletters, increasing numbers of trainers keep a few horses in training and send them to run abroad in November and December.

Trainer Václav Luka jnr’s horses won over half a million euros in prizemoney on the flat in France in 2016. That is a stunning sum of money by Czech standards, and has earned the Luka stable and Czech flat racing in general much respect in France. By the end of February, plenty of Czech trainers will no doubt be sending horses to run in France, aiming to emulate Václav Luka jnr!

A dream, raised again by Petr Malík on the Galopp Reporter web pages, is to have an all-weather track here. Then there might be racing at least in November and December, and in late February and March. This will only happen if a white knight comes along and wants to spend tens of millions of euros on such a project, or if betting on Czech racing can make winter racing into a business proposition. I do not know which of these dreams is less unlikely to come true.

If our midwinter break were to be shortened, or eliminated, trainers would be able to retain their staff through the winter months, and riders would have an opportunity to improve their skills without having to go abroad. Another consideration is that we work hard in the season to attract new fans to horseracing. However, we can lose them again, to ice hockey and to other winter sports, during the long winter break.  

It seems that our best flat race jockey, Bauyrzhan Murzabayev, wants to try his luck abroad in the coming season. He is hoping to make his way in Germany. I am not aware whether he has some kind of offer already. We all wish him well, as he has always been a good professional, talented and modest. He is still a young man, aged about 24 or 25. If he does not get chances in Germany, he will always be in demand here.

An interesting piece of news for Czech breeding is that Meandre is now standing at stud here, at the Napajedla Stud. Meandre, by Slickly (FR) out of Penne (FR) (Sevres Rose (IRE)) was owned for most of his racing career by Ramzan Kadyrov. The horse was trained here by Arslangirej Šavujev in the last years of his long racing career. Šavujev was training him when he won the G1 Preis von Europa at Cologne as a 5-y-o in September 2013. Meandre won five top races: Juddmonte Grand Prix De Paris (G1), Grand Prix De Saint-Cloud (G1), Grosser Preis Von Berlin (G1), Preis Von Europa (G1), and Prix De L'Avre (L). He was second in Qatar Prix Niel (G2), Qatar Prix Foy (G2), and La Coupe (G3), and third in 123rd Grosser Preis Von Berlin (G1), Longines - Grosser Preis Von Baden (G1), and Prix Lord Seymour (L). Meandre was a top class horse over distances up to 2 400 metres.

Finally, I have had a look at the above-mentioned Tipster’s Thumb website. A character called Whaler, who is depicted in a light green sou’wester, with a harpoon in his hand, explains why he has not been giving any tips recently. The problem, he says, is that since January 1^st, under the new Law on Lotteries, there has been no legal way for a Czech resident to make a bet on horseracing.

It seems that people who bet on horseracing abroad mainly have an account with Racebets, or with William Hill or Ladbrokes. Many have an account mainly so that they can watch races abroad online. Now the online betting companies have to register, and as of January 17^th, when Whaler’s article appeared, no licences had been granted.

The new law seems to be partly in response to the fact that offshore betting companies have paid no tax, and have been unfair competition for local companies like Tipsport and Fortuna. The local companies cannot compete, and for several years now they have not offered bets on horseracing.

The Czech authorities, and Czech society as a whole, have been concerned for a long time about gamblers losing money they cannot afford on fruit machines, on scratch cards, on online gambling, and on other betting opportunities. Loan sharks also prey on the financially unsophisticated. The local and national authorities have to deal with ever more extensive homelessness and social dereliction, connected above all with some kind of combination of debt, alcohol, drugs, gambling, psychological issues and divorce. At Christmas time and when it is very cold, as it has been this last month, the issue of homelessness and its causes gets a lot of attention.

The authorities want to make a register of gamblers, and to require loan companies to do due diligence, and to stop them making further loans to persons already hopelessly in debt. Whaler points out some difficulties and anomalies, and shows that, as we know, if people feel driven to gamble themselves into debt, despair and homelessness, they will probably find a way.

I can reveal that Whaler’s “real” name is Ferdinand Minařík jnr. Ferdinand’s father, Ferdinand snr was a top jockey and then a top trainer, based at Velká Chuchle. His brother Filip has ridden more winners than any other Czech jockey, and is the current champion jockey in Germany. Whaler was himself a decent jockey with weight problems, and after gving up riding he trained for a few years. When he gave that up, he reportedly said it was because it was too great an effort for him to be polite to his owners. Good for Whaler.