Luka: We’d like to win one or two races on Saturday

 Trainer Václav Luka has been a key figure both in founding the European Jockeys Cup three years ago, and in sustaining the event into its fourth year. This period of time has coincided with his emergence as a major Czech-based European trainer with a series of horses that have won good races in France. Several of his horses that normally run in good-quality races in France have been entered for the main races on EJC day.

As expected, the Czech trainer with the biggest number of runners in the four big EJC races on Saturday is Václav Luka, who has been involved in all aspects of setting up and organizing the event, and not only as a trainer. This time, he has more than one runner in each of the main races, and he would be happy to win with one or two of them. “It’ll be mighty tough,” he points out.

 “There’ll be a lot of competition, and particularly in the EJC Leram Million,” Václav Luka considers. “The foreign challengers may have unfavourable numbers (starting gates 14, 15 and 16 for Shining Emerald, Gordon Lord Byron and Julio, respectively), but if the race is run  in the English way, and if Julio and Gordon Lord Byron come from behind, it will be hard for any of ours to stay with them, and that’s a fact. I have Beau Massagot in the race. He hasn’t done much recently in France, but in the spring he showed that he is a really good colt (he won two good races at Bratislava, including the Slovak Two Thousand Guineas). He should have it in him to finish in the prizemoney (prizemoney in the EJC Leram Million goes down to 7th place). As for Borsakov, we have to hope some of the others will underperform. To tell the truth, he doesn’t have as much class as most of the opposition. Troizilet is unpredictable, of course. It depends how the race goes. If it goes well for him, he’s a completely different horse from when it isn’t his day.”

Outside the feature race, Luka sees his yard’s best hopes in Wireless, in the EJC Middle, over 1800 metres. This is one of the stars of the yard, but will be running in the Czech Republic for the first time. Why? “Wireless isn’t getting any younger, and we decided that it was time to show him to Czech racegoers. This is a horse that has already done a lot, and of course we’d like him to win on home soil, though there is plenty of opposition in this race,” Václav Luka says.

“We have the favourite in the race for two-year-olds, but we have to take into account that Pardon My French has already done a lot this season, and that he’s been running in sprints. There’s a question mark over whether 1400 metres will suit him. I also have Great Gunnar and Államfö, both of which would have to show some real progress. Neither of them is without a chance – because it is not clear in advance what we can expect from the other two-year-olds on Saturday,” Luka says, with reference to the EJC Pemat Trading Gerscha Memorial.

As far as the EJC Long is concerned, there is a rather clear favourite, Blessed Kiss (winner of the Czech Derby and the Czech St Leger this year). Apart from her, several of our top stayers are missing. Luka’s own main iron in the fire may also be missing. “Ventaron has his problems, and he isn’t a completely certain runner. We’ll decide about him later, Václav Luka explains. “We also have Rousse in the race, but until now she’s been running over two kilometres. If she can do 2400 metres, she might give Blessed Kiss a race, but her stamina is in question. Blessed Kiss is running against older horses for the first time. Mainly Bonys and perhaps Stellar Speed could challenge her,” Václav Luka considers.

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This interview, written by Dostihový svět editor Petr Guth, first appeared in our Czech language web pages. Photo by Petr Guth.