Good jockeys are at a premium for the Derby and for Pardubice
On our Derby day, our owners and trainers always look beyond the pool of local riders in an attempt to give their horses the best opportunity. This year there is just one jockey from the British Isles. According to the published riders, Jim Crowley (who rode quite a lot for trainer Cestmir Olehla over fences a decade ago) was to have come to ride Mister Westminster. However, he will be serving a suspension, and is to be replaced by Steve Drowne. Two Slovak-based jockeys will be in the race, both riding for Czech trainers. Jan Havlik will ride Mister Aviation for Frantisek Holcak, and Jaroslav Linek will be on Taggerton, trained by Josef Piruch. Czech-based Bauyrzhan Murzabayev rides Sapsiree for Tomas Satra, and Alexander Smirnov will be on Absolyut, which is probably Arslangirej Savujev’s second choice.
For Saturday’s races at Pardubice there has also been a scramble for the best riders, after both Josef Bartos and Jaroslav Myska suffered injuries at Merano last Sunday which will keep them out of the saddle for a minimum of a month. Trainer Hana Kabelkova had been very pleased to engage Bartos to ride Trezor, winner of two of last year’s VP qualification races, with a view to engaging him for the VP itself on October 13th. According to the Czech language pages of Dostihovy Svet, she tried without success to contact Liam Treadwell, who rode the horse in all his races last year. She was very pleased to discover that Jan Faltejsek will be at Pardubice on Saturday and was without a ride in the qualification race. Faltejsek is having a successful engagement with top French jumps trainer, Guillaume Macaire, and will be visiting his home town to ride his 2012 VP winner Orphee des Blins in another race, and also to take some rides for the BORS Breclav stable and trainer Petr Juranek.
Jiri Kousek will also be making one of his occasional visits to Pardubice racecourse, and will ride Ronino in the qualification race. Ronino will have been Jaroslav Myska’s intended ride, and trainer Cestmir Olehla will be pleased to have Kousek’s services on Saturday.