At the end of last year, trainer Radim Bodlák took two of his charges over to Cheltenham to be the first Czech runners there for some time. Now that preparations are being made for the world’s leading jumps meeting at that racecourse, he is not preparing to go back although, as he says, it would not be impossible to prepare a horse in the Czech Republic to run at the Festival in March. Bodlák is leaving this as a target for future years, though he would be happy for his horses to run frequently at racecourses abroad this year.

“I don’t think it would be impossible under our conditions to prepare a horse for the festival meeting,” the trainer says. “If you have the right horse and the right owner, it’s a possibility, and, as we’ve found out, the Brits are interested in having our horses run.” However, Radim Bodlák has other plans for Delight My Fire, which put in a high-quality performance in her crosscountry race at Cheltenham [in December 2016] and would not be out of place among the competition at the festival.

“The main task will be to prepare her for the Velka Pardubicka,” the trainer states. “That’s the target that want to aim for. However, I won’t deny that I’d be happy to run her in a couple of Crystal Cup races before that,” he says, confirming that the international crosscountry series seems to be an interesting route. “Of course, the nearest Crystal Cup race for us is at Wroclaw [the first ever Crystal Cup race at Wroclaw will be run on June 11^th 2017]. We know the course well. I also have in mind running one race in France that would fit in with our season,” he says, adding the proviso, of course, that any long-range plans will have to fit in with the mare’s condition and the development of her season.

“As a matter of fact, I’d like to race our horses abroad as much as possible. For our Swedish owner, the priority is the Swedish Grand National at Strömsholm. The owner is one of the organisers at Strömsholm. Although the prize money is nothing extraordinary, it’s a very prestigious event [the Swedish Grand National will be run on June 17^th, 2017]. Well definitely be preparing horses to go there, and it’ll be especially important for us to do well there. I’ll also be happy to take some two-year-olds to Sweden, and also some horses that have been there before,” says Radim Bodlák. After his Swedish outings last year, he has learned to go looking for interesting prize money, and he definitely intends to continue in the same spirit in the upcoming racing season this year.

“There will be some races in the south of Sweden from April onwards. We’ll see what races are suitable. I’ll be studying the race conditions carefully,” the trainer says. In addition, he would like to go more often to France. “We also have an owner who would like to run a horse at Merano. I’m not completely thrilled about it. We know quite a lot about the problems with prize money payments. The owner knows about it, but Merano attracts him, so it’s quite possible that we’ll go over there with some horses,” the trainer adds, noting that the races for his horses in the Czech Republic will have to be fitted in with the travel calendar for his horses running abroad.

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This interview first appeared in the Czech language pages of Dostihový svět. It was written by our editor, Petr Guth, and was translated by Robin Healey