Open Day at the Luka stable, on the Saturday before the beginning of our racing season was a chilly occasion, but the staff were smartly and warmly dressed in blue!

The opening race day of our season at Lysá-nad-Labem on Monday has attracted disappointingly few declared runners, a total of just 41 in the seven races.

January 2018 was a remarkably mild month in the Czech Republic. The main way for residents of Prague to see snow or even a proper frost this winter has been to get into a car and drive up into the mountains. Personally, I would not dream of going in search of snow and frost, in a car, on narrow, icy mountain roads.

Ferdinand Minařík won the Czech flat jockeys’ championship twice, and went on to be a racehorse trainer based at Prague Velk

Václav Janáček has won his fifth Spanish flat jockeys’ title. This Czech jockey, who is currently working in Qatar, already cannot be caught [article written on December 19^th].

Former jumps jockey and racehorse trainer František Grassl passed away on December 16^th, at the age of 79.

Somehow, there has always been something more pressing to do, throughout the last three weeks, than to write an October newsletter.

Sunday, October 8^th, 2017

127th running of the Velka Pardubicka, with Česká pojišťovna

127. Velká pardubická s Českou pojišťovnou
Stcc - cena L - 6+ - 6900 m - 5 000 000 Kč

James Fry reports that French trainer Guillaume Macaire is at the moment planning to run Virtus D'Estruval in the Velka Pardubicka. This horse was among the entries for the Velka Pardubicka that were made in May.

James Reveley, who finished fourth in the Velka Pardubicka on Maljimar in 2012, has ridden the horse in his last three races. It is hoped he may ride here on October 8^th. Virtus D'Estruval finished a very creditable 3rd in his last start, which was in the Crystal Cup race at Craon, in France, on September 3^rd.