Váňa jnr: As a trainer I’ll be looking more towards France

The biggest announcement in Czech steeplechasing for a long time was Josef Váňa jnr’s declaration just before Christmas that he was giving up race riding with immediate effect, that he had already started training 37 horses for top Italian owner Scuderia Aichner, and that Josef Bartoš is returning to ride for Josef Váňa jnr and Josef Váňa snr. The following interview by Petr Guth, which first appeared in Czech language on the Dostihový svět website on January 5th, 2019, provides further details about this turning point in Young Josef’s life. By the way, I was asked by a reader some time ago, “Is young Josef any good, or is he just the son of a great man?” My answer was that he was a very fine jockey and a really fine young man. In addition, his father has not only taught him everything he knows, but has also repeatedly sent him abroad to broaden his horizons and to learn from people who know things that he is not able to teach his son.

 

Translation by Robin. Photo by Petr Guth.

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Josef Váňa junior’s move at the end of December from the ranks of jockeys to the category of trainers was the hottest news item in the midwinter silly season in Czech horseracing. The Italian jumps jockeys’ champion of 2017 narrowly failed to defend his title in December 2018, and gave his congratulations to the winner, Josef Bartoš, the man who is replacing him as jockey in the colours of Scuderia Aichner. Bartoš is returning to the Váňas afer spending some years riding for their Italian rival, Paolo Favera. And how does Váňa junior see his change in position and status before his first runner this year sets out for France?

 

“It certainly is a change, and I’ve been looking forward to it in recent months. For the first time in ten years I’ll be able to have a proper meal,” he jokes. “We started talking about it in the summer. Whether or not I gave up riding depended a lot on managing to get Pepča Bartoš in as a replacement. I’m very pleased that we have this agreement. It was a basic condition for Mr Aichner, too, to get this change in jockeys just the way it is!”

 

Váňa admits that he had been seriously considering giving up riding, but his main motive was to try being a trainer. “Like this, we’ve taken advantage of an ideal opportunity. I’ll be training the horses of this owner, and he’s reckoning to race them abroad. Of course, there might be a race in dad’s cup [the Josef Váňa Cup is a series of classical steeplechases in the Czech Republic, with good prizemoney by Czech standards] that we could enter a horse for. In future, we might have a horse for the Velka Pardubicka, but for now I’m reckoning on racing abroad.”

 

Racing in France is to play a considerably bigger role in the plans for 2019. “We’ve agreed with the owner that more horses will go to France. The races over there are attractive for us, and the best horses, above all, will try their luck there. I wouldn’t like to do the same as last year, when our horses ran on rock-hard ground at Merano, when at least some of them could’ve gone to better prepared courses in France. We’d like to go over there more this year,” says Josef Váňa junior.

 

The change that basically led to the end of his career as a jockey will not in any way be an earthquake in the way the stable operates. “We certainly didn’t carry out this change because we wanted a fight with my dad. The reverse is true. The collaboration that we’ve had in the past is going to continue to the same degree. We’ll be preparing the horses together, and, for example, I’ll be doing the entries for our horses abroad. The system’s tried and tested.”

 

Will Váňa junior have half an eye on this year’s Italian trainers’ championship? “As I said, we want to go to France more this year, with some of our best horses. The stable’s workhorses will definitely run in Italy. However, the owner’s already won the Italian championship title, and he too will be concentrating on breaking through in France,” Josef Váňa says.