When I started thinking about the April newsletter, a week before the end of March, I imagined it might start “At long last, winter seems to be over, and spring is upon us …”. However, as of 29/3/2013, there is again snow on the ground in the western suburbs of Prague. Night frosts are forecast for the foreseeable future, and there is no mention of when the daily maximum temperature might reach double figures. This has been the coldest March in my 22 winters in the Czech Republic, but it is not altogether a bad thing. In many years we have had mild weather in midwinter, followed by very sharp late frosts. A colleague told me this week that his apricot tree has not started budding too early this year, and that he therefore is hoping for a good crop this summer.

The whole of the northern hemisphere has been very cold in March and, at least, we are generally quite well equipped to deal with the kind of weather that we have been having. I say “generally”, because I fear few of our trainers are properly equipped to prepare themselves for the racing season that begins on April 6^th. Let us hope the racecourses at Slusovice and Prague Velka Chuchle are going to be raceable. The first meeting of the season at Bratislava, scheduled for April 7^th, has already been called off. The Bratislava decision was taken because there is snow on the course, trainers have not been able to prepare their horses, and there are spaces in the Slovak racing calendar where an extra racing day at Bratislava can easily be fitted in. [I have just read that a decision will be taken on Monday, April 2nd about the meeting at Velka Chuchle on April 8th.]   

Only a few Czech training establishments have an all-weather track or indoor facilities. Those who have are theoretically at a considerable advantage, at least for the month of April. However, racing is a funny business, and who can tell which trainers will look back on a good month at the end of April?

The recently announced entries for the opening weekend of the season suggest that many trainers and owners have decided to delay the beginning of their 2013 campaign. The meeting at Slusovice has mainly small fields, but it is too soon to say whether these are caused by the weather or by the high entry and acceptance fees that our racecourses have been authorized to charge, but only Slusovice, so far, has decided to implement.

At Velka Chuchle, too, there are few entries for April 8th, particularly in the higher category races. There are just six entries for the Category I Gomba Handicap, the traditional season-opening 1200-metre handicap with a full bend, and just four each in the two Category II races. All races with fewer than ten entries remain open, and we hope and anticipate that some trainers and owners will decide to make late entries for their horses.

We are waiting to see the outcome of the coup at ČSCHPMDK. ČSCHPMDK is the Czech Association of Thoroughbred Breeders and Racehorse Owners, and the coup is described in http://www.dostihovy-svet.cz/en/node/1231. Jiří Trávníček, the new president, stated that ČSCHPMDK meetings for the whole year have now been timetabled and announced, and will no longer be announced three days in advance. The coup has been made by leading owners, who will now have much more influence not only on ČSCHPMDK but, more importantly, in the Czech Jockey Club, which has also had a tendency to announce meetings three days in advance, and on dates when awkward members of the board were known to be otherwise engaged. Jiří Trávníček, whose stable is called Pegas (owner among others of Orphee des Blins), is not only a big owner, but also a small breeder. His style is diplomatic, but he is not someone who will be easily overruled or outmanoeuvred. It seems likely that long-term Jockey Club president Vaclav Luka will no longer have a large silent majority to support whatever he proclaims, but, on the other hand that, in Jiří Trávníček, he will be dealing with a very reasonable but firm faction leader.

The Fitmin-Turf Magazine Czech-language website has been interviewing trainers over the winter months, and has now reached number 42. Most of them say the winter training conditions have been bad, times are hard, but they have some promising horses in their yard. What else can they say? I had to smile when Martina Ruzickova said (I exaggerate slightly) that her hopes for the season rest above all on Rubin. This 11-y-o did do well to finish 5^th in the Labe Prize on Velka Pardubicka day in 2012, but he is still a maiden after 54 runs, and is very one-paced. I hope we will all be able to celebrate a win for Rubin with Martina this summer - but I think it would have to be at Category IV. I feel a bit bad about smiling at the high hopes of our small trainers: high hopes are a big part of what they have going for them.

Really, the Fitmin-Turf Magazine interviews, mainly with small trainers, have not revealed much. Even the answers to the question: Who is going to work in the yard, and who is going to ride the horses in their races? tended to the indicate that an honest answer might have been: I don’t know, but we hope to manage somehow.

Any mention of Trezor is interesting. At 9 years old, Trezor is a leading contender for VP 2013. However, he has had a setback, and will not run early in the season. Trainer Hana Kabelkova said that “the Velka Pardubicka is not the alpha and the omega for Trezor this year”. I cannot imagine, however, that a Czech-owned horse with a real chance in the Velka would not be aimed at the race.

Mimon has been a focus of some attention in recent months. The auction of the Mimon stud will be held in Prague on April 10^th. I understand that the stud and training centre buildings are in quite good condition, and are to be used ‘for recreational purposes’. The new owner will not be required to keep the breeding establishment going, and trainer Arslangirey Savujev has been served notice to leave the training yard. It seems likely that breeding will not continue at Mimon, but it might continue as a training centre and as a centre where imported horses are quarantined. It seems that Savujev has been making contingency plans to leave Mimon, but is hoping to be able to stay at a location that has suited him and worked well for him.

It is always assumed that readers of this website are primarily interested in Czech and Central European steeplechasing, and in racing at Pardubice in particular (though I try gently to educate you and broaden your interest, particularly on the issue of the survival of horseracing, especially jumps racing, in central Europe as a whole.)

I draw your attention to my translation on this site of a set of good questions http://www.dostihovy-svet.cz/en/node/1316, posed by Petr Guth and answered by Richard Benysek, the new chairman of the board of Dostihovy Spolek, organizers of events at Pardubice racecourse. The chairman is no doubt right that Pardubice racecourse is a business that needs to be run efficiently, and he will surely be devoting some of his considerable management skills to ensuring that the course is well run. However, I am aware of horseracing run as a business, for example at some of the major courses in the UK. Is there a danger that, at Pardubice, where we spend about 5 hours watching 8 races, with 35-minute intervals between races, we are now going to be bombarded with money-spending opportunities in a way that is not traditional at Czech meetings? Until now, we have been able to get a very reasonably-priced beer and a sausage if we are prepared to queue up long enough, and a racecard as long as we do not forget to buy one before entering the racecourse area. I have to admit that the rundown seediness of Czech racecourses, football stadiums, etc. are for me a part of their charm, a nostalgic reminder of dog racing and football stadiums in Reading and in Leeds in the 1950s and 1960s. Of course, people like me are not and should not be the target audience of futuristic racecourse managers.

The new Czech racing season is about to begin, however unlikely that may seem as I look out on the wintry scene. Although the financial and political situation in Czech racing and in Czech society is worrisome (though not, I think, for the rich one percent), it is expected that Czech racing will survive. There are some interesting new ideas and personalities, and after a period of many steady years when little new has been attempted, change is in the air. Spring will come, and the new season will have its winners as well as its losers.