A month ago, in the September newsletter, I expressed the hope that we would at last have a month of ordinary weather, without any extremes. That is what we got in September, though the weather was in fact cooler and a bit wetter than I had had in mind. We waited a long time for the Indian summer, which is a normal feature of autumn in the Czech Republic. When I made the first draft of this newsletter, on Sunday morning, I wrote that it was a lovely sunny day. An hour later, I went outside and made my way across Prague to Velka Chuchle. The weather was indeed lovely and sunny, but there was a strong and extremely cold wind.

Sunny days and cold nights are forecast for at least the next week. The course at Pardubice will be drying out. I hesitate to predict what the going will be like at Pardubice eleven days from now, as it depends mainly on the last two or three days before the big race. I will only state that it seems unlikely that the ground will be either very hard or very soft. The new watering system is available if the sunny, windy weather dries the course out too much.

The biggest news in Czech racing in September has been of successes at racecourses abroad. Josef Vana achieved a big ambition by winning the Gran Premio at Merano with Alpha Two, ridden by his son Josef junior. This was also a big moment for Josef junior, who has developed into an international class steeplechase jockey. He is a much more stylish rider than his father, and he does honour to his famous name. He rode at Merano with a broken ankle, but photographs on this site show him walking to collect his prize, unsupported and not grimacing. I will make time to translate an interview with young Josef about his great win on Alpha Two.

There have been plenty of other major wins by Czech-trained horses abroad in the past month, including Ley Percy winning the Slovak Oaks and Meandre winning the Preis von Europa at Cologne and then being disqualified very harshly – the result of an appeal is due very soon, and I expect Meandre to be awarded the race. Let me give you a list of the racecourses abroad that Czech-trained horses ran at in September 2013. France: Maisons Laffitte, Strasbourg, Wissembourg, Divonne, Nancy, Lyon la Soie, Longchamp; Germany: Cologne, Halle, Munich, Leipzig, Berlin Hoppegarten, Baden Baden, Dresden; Italy:  Merano; Austria: Ebreichsdorf; Slovakia: Bratislava; Poland: Wroclaw; Hungary: Budapest.  As far north as Berlin, as far east as Budapest, as far south as Lyon, as far west as Paris.

We have more and more horses trained here that are good enough to win Listed races abroad, and only a very limited number of races that are suitable and attractive for them to run in here. More and more foreign owners, some with deep pockets, have their horses trained here by Savujev or by Vana. A small but growing number of trainers, most notably Jürgen Albrecht and Rene Vinklarek, specialize in training horses here to run at small tracks like Dresden, Halle and Leipzig that are not far away in Germany, mainly for German owners. Some trainers prepare young horses that will be sent to race in France when they are ready to begin their racing career.

We are now less than two weeks from the Velka Pardubicka, but there has been nothing much to say about the race since the August qualification race at Pardubice. The final qualification race was a substandard event that was won easily by Silver Regent. Silver Regent is owned by KöiDent (Ivo Köhler). The owner has Tiumen and also Zarif qualified for the race, and he has decided not to supplement a third horse. Nevertheless, the owner of the runner up, Al Jaz, decided to pay CzK 90 000 for a supplementary entry. Al Jaz has improved enough to win a Category IV race and two Category III races at Pardubice within the last year, but he is unlikely to be among the leaders when they approach the last fence on October 13^th.

At the end of August, a mare called Folie D’Ocean, trained by Patrice Quinton, was supplemented for the VP. This horse was bought by Mika Hakkinen, a car driver, and sent here to be trained by Martina Ruzickova. However, the horse was not qualified for the VP. The idea was to send the mare to Pardubice for the September qualification race. Unfortunately, when she arrived from France she was not in sufficient shape to send for the tough qualification race. So, she is not qualified for the VP, and is now entered to run in one of the other races on VP day.

The entries for the other races on VP day seem to confirm which foreign trainers are likely to bring horses over for the VP itself. Enda Bolger and Nick Williams have entered horses in other races, which seems to imply that they still intend to run Zest for Life and Shalimar Fromentro in the Velka (as indicated previously on this site). Any other UK or Irish horses would be a pleasant surprise.

There seem to me to be three Czech-trained horses with a big chance in the Velka. Both Orphee des Blins and Trezor have won each of their two races very impressively this year. Tiumen has won the VP three times and was third last year. He is now 12, and his rider, Josef Vana, is now 60, but both horse and rider are young at heart, and have spent the last twelve months preparing single-mindedly for October 13^th. The foreign horses may be the next best.

The Fitmin website carries plenty of good articles on thoroughbred breeding. I read that there has been a 30% drop in the number of mares covered in the Czech Republic this year, and there has also been a big drop in recent years in Ireland and the UK. Czech thoroughbred breeding has been a lossmaking business ever since the changes in 1989. At that time breeders were able to take over or buy up substandard stallions and mares and rundown buildings, and start selling horses to Czech owners, who at that time had very limited funds. There have always been hardworking and skillful horsemen here, but lack of investment money and low sales prices have also always been a problem, not to mention misplaced investment and bad luck. It is thought by many that our long winters and lack of naturally-growing high-quality grass, especially at higher elevations, are a major handicap for the breeding industry. I remember being in Ireland with Josef Vana a few years ago, and he remarked the grass growing wild outside our guesthouse in County Kildarewas finer than you would find on the finishing straight of a Czech racecourse.

Fitmin carried an article, with fine photographs, about the breeding centre being set up by Rostislav Kopecky at Krabcice, near Roudnice-nad-Labem http://dostihy.fitmin.cz/chov/na-navsteve-v-centru-darhorse.html. Rostislav Kopecky, whose horses run in DAR colours, and whose company is called Darhouse, has spent a lot of money on buying up land and reconstructing buildings, and on an attempt to set up a modern breeding centre. He first appeared, and raised eyebrows, when his presumably very expensive 3-y-o filly, Corcovada (by Captain Rio), bought in Ireland, appeared here, and a year later another presumably very expensive 3-y-o filly from Ireland, Leo Gali (by Galileo). Both of these mares have had good racing careers in Central Europe. Rostislav Kopecky has ideas of building up a top-class breeding centre, including quality mares like Corcovada and Leo Gali, at Krabcice, and selling the products abroad. Can it work? Well, in my opinion, buying agricultural and buildings and upgrading them is a much less risky proposition than attempting to set up a commercial thoroughbred breeding centre here.     

A month ago, we were nervous about the return of racing to Prague Velka Chuchle racecourse, just three months after the entire course was under muddy water. It is good to report that the hard work, considerable expenditure and endless haggling with the insurance company has paid off. Racing at Velka Chuchle took place in September without an incident. The racetrack has held out very well, and has benefitted from the rainy, cool weather in September.  

At the end of June I translated a press release from Turf Praha, owners of Prague Velka Chuchle racecourse, and added some comments about Turf Praha (course owners), TMM (racecourse managers), the Jockey Club of the Czech Republic, and Betino (the monopoly bookmaker for Czech racing), explaining how it came about that several names appear repeatedly in these four organizations. It is a complicated story, and I will not retell it – you can read all about it on  http://www.dostihovy-svet.cz/en/node/2109 (you might decide to gloss over the first part of the press release).

Turf Praha has now offered other organizations an opportunity to put in a bid to manage Velka Chuchle racecourse next year. Jockey Club president Vaclav Luka senior suggested that some of the people who have been complaining about TMM’s management might want to try to do better themselves. He also implied that TMM has few new ideas about how to raise revenues, and that some other organization, with new ideas and better contacts, might have access to more sponsors (all Czech racecourses have been having difficulty finding race sponsors during the economic crisis, even Velka Chuchle). I can imagine that TMM are weary, after dealing with their second flood at the racecourse. The first came in 2002, which was TMM’s first year as racecourse manager.

I am not sure how to interpret this move by Turf Praha. Some of the shareholders, perhaps including Vaclav Luka (who is also president of the Jockey Club and a member of the board of TMM), would welcome a new management team at the racecourse. Others, perhaps including Vaclav Luka, may be more interested in warding off criticism of TMM. Are they saying to the critics, “Put up or shut up” – either take over and show what you can do, or stop complaining. It is not quite clear to me whether TMM is offering favourable terms that will attract a new management association, or whether a new association would look at Turf Praha’s offer and reject it.

I like to mention our jockeys from time to time in these newsletters. In the July newsletter I introduced Bauyrzhan Murzabayev, a young, inexperienced rider, who arrived here not much more than a year ago from Kazakhstan. He led our flat jockeys’ championship almost until the end of June, then hit a bad patch and appeared to be dropping out of contention, as Jan Verner picked up a series of winners. Now Jan Verner’s winning streak has dried up, and last weekend Bauyrzhan Murzabayev rode a total of six winners, at Karlovy Vary and Velka Chuchle. He now has 26 winners this year, two ahead of Verner and four ahead of last year’s champion, Jaromir Safar.  Over fences, there are still several contenders as we enter the last month of the season. Josef Vana jnr, Dusan Andres and Josef Sovka (well done, Josef!) have all ridden 12 winners; Josef Bartos and Thomas Boyer are on 11; and Marek Stromsky is on 10. Josef Vana jnr has a broken ankle, and I hope he is going to ride very sparingly, if at all, in October, and I assume that he will not go all out to win this championship.

The Velka Pardubice is on October 13^th, and runners and riders will be announced on October 4^th. October is the climax of our steeplechasing season, followed rapidly by the end of the season and the cold month of November. I hope you are coming over for the Velka Pardubicka – it is not too late to catch a plane and just arrive here.