Early in May we had chilly nights and mild weather, with some rain, but the final 10 days of the month have been distinctly warm and dry, leading up to big thunderstorms on May 30th. In the last couple of years, in particular, the qualification races for the Velka Pardubicka have been run on a series of very hot days, and on much harder ground than is ideal for long-distance crosscountry steeplechasing. This year, even the May qualification race was run on a hot day and on quite firm ground.

I was surprised to hear that there has been quite considerable late frost damage to crops in the Czech Republic for the second successive year. We did not have any night frost in May in low-lying Prague, but in much of the country there was just enough frost in April and at the beginning of May to do damage, in particular, to apricots. Cherries have survived better. The wine harvest will also again be small this year.

***

Czech racing, I should say, has been internationalizing gradually ever since the changes in 1989, with a spurt in recent months and years. Czech thoroughbred breeding is international in the sense that all stallions and almost all dams have international blood – they were bred in the leading horse racing countries, and their papers are full of the same names as one would find in the pedigree of horses running in France, Germany, the UK and Ireland. Plenty of stallions standing here raced in the Czech Republic, but none of them was Czech-bred. Sadly, no winner of a Czech classic has yet made much of a mark as a stallion or as a dam.  

The quality of the best horses trained in the Czech Republic has risen a lot. This is not just a PR claim - the results achieved abroad by Czech-trained horses are getting measurably better and better. Several of our trainers and jockeys have earned a reputation and respect in continental Europe, even if there is still little interest in them in the UK and in Ireland.

Ironically, while Czech racing has been internationalizing rapidly in its outgoing activities, there is still limited incoming non-Czech participation in our racing. Very few foreign trainers send their horses to run here, for obvious reasons: mainly, the competition is tough, and the prize money is low. (We do not consider Slovak participants in Czech racing as foreigners.)

Nevertheless, there have been two notable exceptions within the last year. On May 7^th this year, Dresden-based trainer Claudia Barsig brought a good filly, Fashion Queen, to win our One Thousand Guineas race at Prague Velká Chuchle. Last September, Austrian trainer Ziva Prunk brought Pretorian to win the EJC Million Leram Stakes, the main race on European Jockeys Cup day at Prague Velká Chuchle. We are trying to establish prestigious races here, most notably the EJC Million, and strong international participation is going to be the key.

The 2017 Czech season has featured a greater number of foreign-based jockeys than in the past. It is mostly a matter of Czech jockeys based abroad who are happy to ride here if an owner will make it worth their while. Former multiple Czech champion jockeys  Vaclav Janáček and Bauyrzhan Murzabayev, both now based abroad, are very welcome frequent visitors. In addition, French jockey Stéphane Breux has made several trips to ride here, and has had some winners, and top Polish jockey Szczepan Mazur had some good results here at a couple of meetings early in April. We have a long-term problem that there are only a limited number of Czech jockeys that the connections of a Derby prospect, for example, or a Velka Pardubicka prospect, would feel confident about. It will be fine if jockeys like Breux, Mazur, Janáček, Murzabayev, and also, for example, Polish-based Tomás Lukášek and Martin Srnec, and German-based Filip Minařík, can keep themselves available for our biggest racedays. And how about the most successful Czech female jockey of all time, Eliška Kubinová (picture above), based in the north-western part of the USA? She has never ridden a winner here, and only ever rode a few races in the Czech Republic during her apprenticeship at Velká Chuchle. Her reappearance here would be a big event!

Swedish jumps jockey Niklas Lovén makes no secret of his willingness to ride in the Czech Republic and for Czech trainers. At the end of April and the beginning of May, he rode two horses for Czech trainer Radim Bodlák at Wroclaw. He then rode Swedish-owned

Increasing numbers of non-Czech owners send their horses to be trained in the Czech Republic. The training fees are much lower here than in western or northern Europe, and there are good trainers with good facilities. Our trainers are experienced in sending horses to run abroad - which is basically little different from running the horse in the Czech Republic, thanks to the European Union and the Schengen space. Italian and Swedish owners of steeplechasers in increasing numbers see the advantages of having their horses trained here. Top Polish trainer Greg Wroblewski has been based here for a long time, and his owners include Poles. Trainer Arslangirej Savuyev has been training here very successfully on the flat, mainly for Russian and Kazakh owners, for more than 20 years. Trainer Václav Luka’s dramatic success with his runners in France in 2016 has brought him some French owners. Pavel Vítek has for many years been pre-preparing young horses that are aimed to have their horseracing career in France, with French trainers. A number of trainers based near the German border prepare horses with German owners to run mainly in Germany. Jürgen Albrecht trains just south of the German border, and sends horses to Germany, France and elsewhere, but never runs them in the Czech Republic!

The number of Czech-trained horses winning really good prize money abroad just keeps growing. Josef Vána is far ahead in the Italian jumps trainers’ championship. He has already trained a total of 34 winners in 2017, including 5 over jumps and 3 on the flat in the Czech Republic. He has a remarkable array of high-quality jumpers, and he has to travel far and wide to avoid racing these good horses too much against each other. Greg Wroblewski is always ready to run horses abroad. In Poland, of course, but he quite likes to win good prize money in France, too! In June, Greg will be preparing diligently for the Czech Derby, in which he still has three entries, including Palazzo Corsini, by Galileo, which has been installed as Derby favourite on the basis of winning his only two races, at Category III over 1 600 metres – this just shows what unknown quantities our Derby horses at at the end of May, four weeks before the greatest race of their career.

Štěpanka Mýsková has sent just six horses to run over fences in France this year, but she has picked up three winners. Capferret won a EUR 55 000 steeplechase at Compiègne in March, and now a EUR 70 000 race at Auteuil on May 20th. Unless I am seriously mistaken, that is the kind of money from which Štěpanka Mýsková and her husband, Jaroslav Mýska, will be very happy to collect the trainer’s share and the jockey’s share, respectively.

Several of our trainers have been sending horses to run in France. Václav Luka has not been able to repeat his strike rate from last year, and points out, probably correctly, that the handicapper has caught up with him. So far, he has had just 3 winners from 82 runners this year. However, what winners he has had!! The well-named Donuts Reyor, owned by his brother, won a EUR 52 000 handicap at Chantilly in April, Borsakov won a EUR 52 000 at St Cloud in mid May, and a week later Wireless won a EUR 52 000 Listed race at Maisons Laffitte. That’s not bad, is it!

June will arrive within a few hours, and for Czech racing within the country, June is always mainly about the Czech Derby, which will be run on Sunday, June 25th, at Prague Velká Chuchle. The racecourse will, as usual, be green and attractive at the height of midsummer, and it will be the high point of our flat racing season.

***

I had planned to end this newsletter with a diatribe about the state of the world, the USA, the UK - and myself. However, the act of writing the newsletter, and having lunch, has mellowed me. Of course, the self-inflected collapse of the Anglo-Saxon world, due to utterly irresponsible voting and the incompetence of the people now in charge, is terrible. My new office is also a catastrophe. How can architects and builders make such blunders? Nevertheless, summer is here and life goes on. Life goes on.