In October 2018, there were some special achievements. David Liška had shown himself as an oustanding apprentice rider in the autumn of 2017 and in the first two months of the 2018 season. By the end of May, he seemed sure to be our champion jockey on the flat this year, and to become the youngest Czech rider ever to reach 50 winners and earn his title as a “jockey”. In June, July and August, he did not add many winners to his total, but in September and October he got going again. On October 21st, he rode his 50th winner. He does not finish the school for apprentices until summer 2019, and he is now the first apprentice in the Czech Republic ever to be a  jockey http://www.dostihovy-svet.cz/en/node/8293. He is by several months the youngest ever Czech rider to reach 50 winners, and he has already gone on to show that losing his 1.5 kilo allowance in lower category races will scarcely affect the number of rides that he is offered or the number of winners that he will ride.

David Liška is sure to be our champion jockey in 2018, and, interestingly, second and third place in the championship are currently (with just two more racedays to come) also occupied by claiming riders, Beysim Ferhanov and Adam Florian. Beysim and Adam have really taken their opportunities and have emerged this year, while David Liška had already shown some special promise a year ago. I hope these young riders will all continue to make rapid progress. There is plenty of space in Czech racing for a number of good riders on the flat and, especially, over fences. Several girl apprentices have ridden more than one winner this season. Simona Laubeová has ridden five winners and has been trusted with 66 rides this year. Taťána Mášová has ridden 4 winners in 35 rides. She is new as an apprentice this year, but rode as an amateur several years ago. Zuzana Míčová has 3 winners from 40 rides. This is her first year riding as an apprentice. Other apprentices have had smaller numbers of rides, and less success. Almost all the apprentices that have had rides this year are girls.

Another notable achievement was on October 20th, at Most racecourse. Václav Janáček won all of the five races that he rode in. He has got back to the Czech Republic on eight separate occasions to ride in races here this year, and has ridden 12 winners. After smashing records for Czech jockeys a few years ago, he went to ride in Spain, where he is the number 1 jockey. He is the best of a number of good jockeys who have emerged from Czech racing over recent years, and have gone on to make an impression abroad. Filip Minařík and Bauyrzhan Muryabazev are based in Germany. Tomáš Lukášek is based in Poland and established himself in Qatar last winter, winning a number of races. Eliška Kubinová, who rides large numbers of winners on the west coast of the United States, must also be a good jockey, though unfortunately she has never come back to ride her first winner in the Czech Republic http://www.dostihovy-svet.cz/en/node/2505. We core fans of Czech racing would very much like her to make an appearance here!

In 2016, trainer Helena Vocásková (photo) caused a surprise by becoming the champion trainer on the flat in the Czech Republic. In 2017, she caused a sensation by displacing Josef Váňa as the champion trainer over fences. This year, she is going to be our champion trainer both on the flat and over fences. The achievement over the past three seasons of Helena Vocásková and her family, who train at Němčice, just outside Pardubice, is terrific. They specialize in horses able to win Category IV and Category III races, alternating over hurdles and fences and on the flat.

Our trainers’ championship is based on numbers of winners, not on the amount of prizemoney that they win. Most of our top trainers aim more at gathering big prizemoney abroad than at winning large numbers of small races at Mimoň, Brno, Kolesa and Slušovice. Helena Vocásková now has some good younger horses in her yard, most notably 3-y-o Dylanka, which won the Czech Oaks and also the Slovak Oaks, and 3-y-o Saul, which has won Category I races both on the flat and over hurdles. She rarely takes her horses to run abroad, unless you consider Slovakia abroad – but if she is to train better horses she will probably need to start taking them to France and Italy.    

Most of our top training establishments are family partnerships, and in most cases it is a woman who has the active licence. In addition to Helena Vocásková, who leads an extended family team, there is Josef Váňa senior, whose wife Pavla and son Josef junior play key roles that include, but go very far beyond, taking orders from the living legend and making sure that he is well fed. Štěpánka Myšková and Jaroslav Myška form a strong partnership. Capferret has been less outstanding for them this year than last year, but they had two wins with good young steeplechasers on Velka Pardubicka day, and the future looks promising for them. The owner of Lodgian Whistle, which has won some nice races, is their young son, Jakub. Lenka Kvápilová and Marcel Novák did well last year and quite well this year. They, too, now seem to be getting some quite good horses to train. 

The jockeys’ championship over jumps is now almost certain to go to Sertash Ferhanov, for the first time. He has ridden many winners for trainer Helena Vocásková. Ferhanov and Marcel Novák went into the Velka Pardubicka meeting neck-and-neck, and were involved in an incident that might have decided the championship in the stewards’ room. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5duaEiCTVvU&feature=youtu.be

Ferhanov, on the odds-on favourite Saul, in green and yellow, and Novák, on second-favourite Laverno, in blue and white approached the third hurdle from home. It should be explained that  

the hurdles at Pardubice are placed against the outside rail, and the third from home is right at the end of the back straight. Too close to the turn, perhaps. Saul approached the right side (the inside) of the hurdle, preparing for the right turn. Laverno was alongside Saul, on his inside. When they reached the hurdle, Laverno had no access, and was forced into the side of it. After Saul had won the race, there was a stewards’ inquiry. The stewards decided that Laverno had been running inside the line between the hurdles, and that Ferhanov, on Saul, had just maintained his line. If the stewards had decided that Ferhanov had forced Laverno into the side of the hurdle, and had disqualified the horse and suspended the jockey, the situation in the jockeys’ championship would have been transformed. I have looked at the video many times, and I think the stewards’ decision may have been correct. There is after all no rule stating that a jockey approaching a bend must wave another horse past on the inside. Nevertheless, it was uncomradely riding by the winning jockey. Maybe the solution will be to place the third hurdle from home differently in future, not on the outside of the track so near to the bend.    

I must admit that this newsletter has given me more difficulty than usual, and the only solution seems to be to delete some of the things I had put in the first draft. Perhaps I will make them into separate articles later, or perhaps I will just junk them. There was something about the seven hours of Czech Television coverage of Velka Pardubicka day, which I had found rather disappointing. There was also something about the jockeys’ and trainers’ championships, but that should better wait a few more days, until the end of the season. And something about my plans to go racing at Slušovice for the first time, if the good weather holds until the weekend. That too can wait – after the event will be soon enough.

So that’s it for October, and that’s it for the November newsletter. Greetings to everyone, especially to readers from outside the Czech Republic who came over for the Velka Pardubicka meeting. Amie and Giovanni, it was good to see you!