The wintry weather that we had throughout January continued until mid February. Since then, it has been milder. By the end of the month, there have been distinct signs, at least at lower elevations, that spring is coming. Our trainers based in the highlands have had some very windy days. People who live in the floodplains of the numerous rivers and streams in the country have been worried by weather forecasts predicting a rapid thaw accompanied by rainfall. I hope it is true that, in most cases, flooding has been narrowly averted or has not been severe. In the past, when winters were colder and snowier, the rivers were less regulated, and there was less equipment for preventing an accumulation of ice, the biggest threat of floods in the Czech lands was when the snow melted and the ice in the rivers broke up. In the last 25 years, however, our worst flooding has been from summer storms and from long wet periods, also usually in the summer months.

A feature of Czech horseracing this winter has been the considerable number of Czech-trained horses that have run abroad in November and December, and also in February. No doubt there will also be plenty of Czech-trained runners abroad in March, especially in France and Italy, on the flat and over fences. February was a particularly successful month for Czech jumpers trained by Josef Váňa and by Greg Wroblewski. On February 19th, the two graded races at Pisa, Italy, were won by horses prepared by these trainers.http://www.dostihovy-svet.cz/en/node/6964.

On February 25th, at Fontainebleu, France, the outsider Terapena, trained by Greg Wroblewski, won a nice race. Greg spent a couple of years of moving around quite a lot while looking for a suitable place to train his horses, and he did remarkably well with mainly moderate horses. Now he appears to have some good material in his yard at Statek Jezerka, which is about 100 km north west of Prague. The nearest town is Chomutov.

Both of the Wrobleski-trained winners in February 2017 were ridden by Jan Faltejsek. My translation of an interview in which Jan says how difficult it still is for him to break though in the UK may have helped to change his luck http://www.dostihovy-svet.cz/en/node/6961. The question is, will owners and trainers in the UK know or care that Jan, apart from winning 4 of the last 5 runnings of the Velka Pardubicka, has now recently ridden well to win a couple of good races, at Pisa and at Fontainebleu. I am not sure that these wins in faraway places count for anything in the British National Hunt community.

Most of our top jumps jockeys are based in the Czech Republic, but also ride abroad. Italy and France are the top destinations abroad, where there are numerous good prizes for our top horses to win. Wroclaw racecourse in Poland is almost as close as Pardubice, or even closer, for many of our trainers. There are just three races with major prize money at Wroclaw (the Crystal Cup race on June 11th (crosscountry), and the Wielka Wroclawska and the Wielka Partynicka (hurdles), both on September 10th). Jumps racing in Slovakia does not amount to very much, but, like Wroclaw, the Slovak courses, mainly Bratislava, provide opportunities to find suitable races for moderate horses. Germany is very accessible for Czech runners, but a combination of low prize money and stiff competition make it unattractive for many of our trainers and owners. However, there are some Czech-based trainers who train mainly or even exclusively for German owners, and run some or all of their horses exclusively in Germany.

In France, as in the UK and Ireland, there is no shortage of good jumps jockeys, but elsewhere there are not enough races to make the tough profession of a steeplechase jockey viable. Jumps racing in Italy, Poland and Slovakia would be at a loss nowadays without the Czech riders, as the numbers of competent local riders seem to be quite small. Czech steeplechasing, too, is short of riders, though some young riders have been coming through in the last two or three years. The ideal of having races restricted to so-called Young Riders has been a positive development. These races have given a number of opportunities each year for riders that have not yet ridden 50 winners to gain some racecourse experience.

It is generally agreed that Josef Bartoš is our senior jockey over fences, a leading personality and also the jockey you would most want to ride your horse. This year, I understand that he and his family will again be based here, but that he will again be retained by top Italian trainer Paolo Favero. This will involve an awful lot of driving. In March, Italian jumps racing is based in Treviso, near Venice. It is a long way to go for a few rides in minor races – but it is part of the deal. After that, racing moves to Milano and Merano, which should be more profitable. As number one rider for Paolo Favero, Bartoš has been Italian jumps jockeys champion for each of the last three years. Last year, he also made several trips to ride in France. In addition he rode at Bad Harzburg, in Germany, made two trips to Sweden, to ride at Täby and at Strömsholm, and rode at one of the meetings at Wroclaw, in Poland.

Since leaving the Josef Váňa stable four years ago, Josef Bartoš has collaborated with various trainers here. He has helped his father, Josef senior. He has some kind of agreement to ride the jumps horses owned by Lokotrans. These are trained mainly by Luboš Urbanek, while a couple of them are with Stanislav Popelka. When he is here, Bartoš will ride out for trainer Ludvig Haris, who is beginning his fourth year with a trainer’s licence and has taken over a top job training the DAR horses. In between times, Josef Bartoš will collaborate with trainer Jiří Michal, whose horses he rode in France last year. Such is the life of our top jumps rider, and I hope all will go well for him. He is currently only in second place in the Italian jumps jockeys’ championship, behind Josef Váňa junior.

We are a bit anxious this year about so many of our leading flat riders going abroad. Bauyrzhan Murzabayev, our best jockey since Václav Janáček went to Spain about five years ago, is expected to ride abroad this year. I think Tomáš Lukášek and Martin Srnec will continue to be based in Poland. I understand that Milan Zatloukal will be based abroad. Filip Minařík has been in Germany for years. This will leave us even shorter than before of strong, experienced riders on the flat. Let us hope that the top Czech jockeys can at least make themselves available for some major events, in particular for Czech Derby day. Few of our Czech trainers and owners have a retained jockey, and they are expressing concern about finding an adequate rider for horses that deserve a competent partner.

I try to avoid writing about horse breeding, as it is a good principle to try not to write about things I know very little about. However, I am told that we have some particularly interesting new stallions here. List of Stallions 2017: http://www.dostihy.cz/res/archive/012/004726.pdf?seek=1487700238 Two-year-olds by Mikhail Glinka will run this year. Zazou, I think, is now in his second year as a stallion, and Meandre is new to the job. It is widely hoped that Czech breeding is on the up, and that the CZE suffix will no longer drag down the prices that our breeders can charge.

It is often said that a healthy horseracing industry is based on a healthy local bloodstock industry. A combination of hard times, bad luck and bad management has kept the achievements of Czech breeding modest since before the second world war. The most famous period of racehorse breeding in the Czech lands came after Aristide Baltazzi, one of four famous horseracing brothers, married in 1886 into the family that owned the Napajedla stud. The Napajedla stud is still operating, and Meandre is standing there. I wish our Czech stallions courage and good luck this breeding season. It sounds like a good job, but, as I said, I do not know much about these things.