Trainer Greg Wroblewski, whose Orphee des Blins was an impressive winner of the 2012 running of the Velka Pardubicka,  has made a strong start to the new season, winning a couple of small races over fences at Brno at the end of April, then the First of May Steeplechase at Lysa nad Labem with Kamelie. At the beginning of May, he sent out Nidara to win the Czech One Thousand Guineas, his first Czech classic winner. Greg  is the private trainer to Jiri Travnicek’s Pegas stable  Here he explains to Petr Guth that his main hopes for the new season lie in a number of promising chasers.

Winning one of the classics always counts for something, but was Nidara’s win something special for you  in comparison with Orphee des Blins’ win last year?

Flat races are something different, of course, and it is difficult to make a comparison. It is certainly very good for Czech racing that a Czech-bred filly [home-bred by Jiri Travnicek] beat the imported horses. That does not often happen here in one of our classic races. I think this is something people often underrate.  Nidara is good  news for other Czech breeders!

Your yard has being doing well at the Czech courses on the flat and over fences. Are you looking forward to further successes in both types of races?

It’s going to be harder on the flat. We do not have a lot of high-quality flat horses, and, for example, I don’t see a top-category 3-y-o colt. Some good horses have moved over to jumps, and nothing quite so good has taken their place. I think we have better chances over fences this season.

Where are they going to run? You’ve been a frequent traveller to Italy, but Merano looks pale-faced!

You’re right. I’m really sad about the situation at Merano. It’s a beautiful course, and there were a lot of races there that we would like to run our horses in. It looks as if we are going to have to find an alternative programme. It’s hard to say where it will be. There are plenty of races in France, but they’re not easy to win. I suppose we’ll have to experiment, if the situation in Italy does not improve dramatically. For the moment, we are also concentrating on running here in the Czech Republic. It’s very good that Pepa Váňa  has come up with the initiative to organise the Summer Cup series, which will give Czech horses a chance to make decent money at courses in the Czech Republic. I’m looking forward to these races, and I think we will find a suitable horse for them.

The most famous horse in your yard is Orphee des Blins.  What plans are there for the mare in the near future?

We don’t want to push her. We’d like to start her season at Pardubice in June. Her first run won’t be in the VP qualification race. She should have an easy run and then gradually get ready for the Velka Pardubicka.

(translated from the Dostihovy svet Czech language pages)