After the postponement of the race meeting at Benesov, the only racing in the Czech Republic last weekend was at Svetla Hora, on Saturday July 13^th. This was the 21^st race meeting held there annually in July, at the training establishment of Wrbna Racing and trainer Cestmir Olehla. The meeting had had to be cancelled last year, due to a fire in the administrative buildings a short time before the scheduled meeting.

For me, it was a pilgrimage to the training centre that was the home of multiple Velka Pardubicka winners Zeleznik and Registana, and Gran Premio Merano winners Kolorado and Masini. Olehla has been training there since 1987, and apart from these splendid chasers, he has trained plenty of good flat horses at Svetla Hora, too.

The race day, organized by a team around Cestmir Olehla and the mayor of Svetla Hora, was a major local festival, with a fairground atmosphere, singing and dancing, and all kinds of equine shows: pony races, a race for unregistered horses, and displays of working horses.  It was blessed by a mild, dry afternoon, the going was good, and the Svetla Hora centre offered good conditions for horse racing.

A highlight was the appearance of Registana with the latest of her 5 offspring. Since finishing her long and distinguished racing career, Registana has produced a foal each year, and the three of them that have already run - Regine, Reaper and Rafa - have all already won a race. The two youngest have not yet been named, but the first letter of the name will be an “R”, in honour of their dam. Reaper, a promising 4-y-o chaser, won his race at Svetla Hora on Saturday.

The main race of the afternoon, the Category II Svetla Hora Racing Centre Prize, 4 600 metres, crosscountry, attracted a very strong field, headed by major Velka Pardubicka contenders, Klaus and Valldemoso. Klaus, from the Olehla yard, made the pace, but from the second fence from home, Moula, ridden by Josef Sovka, took over and won impressively. Moula means The Chump, which is an undeserved name. You cannot blame his owners, Iron Ladies Ostrava, for the name, by the way. They bought him less than a year ago. This 5-y-o never ran on the flat, but won his first three races over fences last year, before running quite well against better company. Trainer Jiri Uhl had explained before the race that he wanted to try Moula against strong opposition, because some people had told him Moula was a real prospect and he was not sure he agreed with them. After this good win, he will be in no doubt.

Jiri Uhl has just 6 horses in his yard, all of them cheaply-purchased Czech-breds. Until now, the star has been Valldemoso. Valldemoso finished 5^th behind Moula on Saturday, producing his third off-colour performance of the season.  A vet is to give him a check-up this week, to see whether he should be OK for the Velka Pardubicka, 12 weeks from now. Klaus finished 2^nd, Ursan 3^rd and Grilias 4^th, so Moula certainly beat some good horses, and he beat them fair and square.

There was some interest in the other races, too. Josef Vana - who rode Svetla Hora-trained Zeleznik in his four Velka Pardubicka wins, worked at Svetla Hora for a considerable time, and who was born and bred in in Moravia - was one of few Bohemian-based trainers to bring horses to Svetla Hora. He brought Rabbit Well, winner of the Pardubice Gold Cup in 2011, but very angry and naughty since then. For two years, the horse had repeatedly lost his chance before or at the start of his races. We were interested to see whether Josef Vana, who reckons to have ways of calming nervous horses, http://www.josef-vana.cz/cz/fotogalerie/vybehy, could work a miracle. He could. Rabbit Well, ridden by Jan Kratochvil, behaved impeccably and won a Category IV race easily.

As expected, the afternoon was well organized by Cestmir Olehla, the mayor of Svetla Hora and the team of helpers. As expected, Olehla trained a couple of winners. What aroused further interest was Olehla in the role of father. He had got a riding licence for his 17-year-old daughter, Veronika, and put her up on her first two rides ever, in each of the two bumper races at the end of the afternoon. In the first of these, she finished second on a filly that had also never raced before. Half an hour later, in the last race of an enjoyable afternoon, she was on Celadon, which had already won a bumper easily at Pardubice. She managed to steer him home successfully to a popular victory.

Getting to Svetla Hora and back by public transport within a day was an adventure. It involved getting up very early, hanging around in dismal Bruntal, twice running for a connection, including a 250-metre uphill dash while needing the connecting train to be delayed, sitting/standing in crowded buses and in a train that groaned loudly every time it started up or had to climb an incline. The journey began and ended with wonderful smooth rides on the new Leojet and Regiojet services between Prague and Olomouc. It pains me to praise and commend these two private-sector train operators, and to report on very poorly-coordinated and uncomfortable public-service trains and buses. I would much have preferred to write about yet another failure of the private sector and about the merits of public-sector transport. However, as a fair-minded man and mainly as a dissatisfied customer, I feel an inner compulsion to state things the way they were.                                 

The midsummer meetings out in the country always show that the grassroots of Czech racing are strong. The meeting at Svetla Hora attracted a very good crowd and gave us an entertaining afternoon. Do go to Svetla Hora next year. We hear that Regiojet wants to run trains from Prague to Bruntal and Krnov. If Czech Railways still has a monopoly, it will be better to go there by car.  

See Petr Guth’s fine photographs of the afternoon at Svetla Hora  http://www.dostihovy-svet.cz/cs/node/2208