The sad truth is that I have not given a lot of attention to Czech racing in April 2014. I got down to Velka Chuchle, my local racecourse, just a couple of times, and did not stay for the whole afternoon. Instead, I went to a sports bar and watched the Arsenal’s attempts to “win 4th place” in the Premiership. At the time of writing, it seems that we will achieve that modest but realistic target, and maybe even go on the win the FA Cup. Let us hope that, a year from now, Arsenal will manage to win fourth place once more.   

Later in the month, I suffered from a persistent chest infection, and that has kept me at home. I may even miss May Day at Lysa-nad-Labem tomorrow. Lysa on May Day is a fine day out, and this year there is a very competitive field of good chasers for the First of May steeplechase, the first major steeplechase of our 2014 season. However, the weather forecast is not too good, and the racecourse is exposed to the elements and a 30-minute walk from the railway station.    

I probably have not missed a lot of great horseracing in April. The first half of our season is mainly about 3-y-os preparing for the classics. The Guineas races, held at the beginning of May here, are over before most of the horses are anywhere near their mid-season best. Even Derby day, the fourth Sunday in June, comes while a lot of them are still children. I complain about this every year, because all our top races are for 3-y-os only. Our best races for older horses on the flat are not well enough endowed to attract the best Czech-trained horses. Our champions mostly head off to race for better prizes and for more prestige in Italy or France.

The most forward Guineas prospects that ran here in April appear to have been the Irish-bred filly Francie (Echo of Light), which comfortably won the Rudolf Deyl Memorial, the trial for the One Thousand Guineas. French-bred Honzík (Orpen), with a dam that raced here, High Reservation, comfortably won the Professor Vaclav Michal Memorial, the trial race for the Two Thousand Guineas. Presumably, these will be well fancied for the classic races early in May.

Another horse that has shown some early form is Irish-bred Cheeky Chappy (High Chapparal), which won a Derby trial at Bratislava at the end of April. He is entered for our Two Thousand Guineas. Cheeky Chappie is owned by Monte Negro, who must think racehorse ownership is easy. They began owning just two racehorses in 2011, and in 2012 they had their first Czech Derby winner, Kadyny. Last year, they moved up to owning five horses, and these included Czech Derby winner Mister Aviation and also Always on Sunday, which finished 7th in the Czech Derby but then went on to win the Czech St Leger. What is the secret of their success? Buying good horses and having them trained by the Holčaks, of course, but above all ... extremely good luck!

The last winter saw the end of a 17-year era in which Vaclav Luka was president of the Czech Jockey Club. Leading owners and trainers took over power in the Czech Steeplechase Association and in the Association of Throughbred Breeders and Owners, and thereby gained a majority in the Council of the Jockey Club. They used their power to oust Vaclav Luka. It is sad that this took place in an unpleasant atmosphere, as Vaclav Luka had put in great efforts for Czech racing over a long period of time. As president of the Jockey Club, he inherited a sport in chaos in 1997, and left it in more or less good order 17 years later. Nevertheless, a time does come for new ideas and new blood, and the new president of the Jockey Club, Jiří Charvát, is a man of a new generation, a successful businessman, a major investor in bloodstock, and a personality who can lead our horseracing dynamically. I hope the take-over by leading owners and trainers will not mean that the interests of the majority of the racing community, for whom the adjective ‘leading’ is inappropriate, will not be neglected.

In the hand-over, the question of owner’s prizes (which I have always opposed) came to a head. Vaclav Luka had been the main proponent of these prizes, paid to owners of Czech-bred horses placed in medium- and high-category races, he and had ensured that the horseracing organisers (racecourses) were required to pay one-half of the owner’s prizes. Even before Luka was removed, the organisers were campaigning for owner’s prizes to be paid wholly by the Jockey Club.  A compromise was achieved shortly before the beginning of the season, when the Association of Thoroughbred Owners and Breeders voted at a stormy meeting, chaired by Jiří Charvát before he became president of the Jockey Club, to renounce one-half of the owner’s prizes for this season. This agreement had to be reached before the race conditions for the new season could be finalized. This issue seems to be resolved for now.              

The past winter was remarkably mild and dry by our standards, and it would have been possible to race here on grass almost throughout the winter. Trainers were able to work their horses quite intensively for a couple of months before the first day of races, April 6th. By that time, buds were sprouting and blossoms were blossoming. Nature was about five weeks ahead of its usual schedule, and it seemed only a matter of time before a normal sharp April morning frost would come along and destroy the new growth. Here in Prague that has not happened yet, though other places suffered from a major hailstorm instead.

There is still time for a sharp frost, of course. The famous days of the Ice Saints Pankrác (May 10^th), Servác (May 11th) and Bonifác (May 12th) are known throughout central Europe. Do not plant your carrots until after May 12th.

Racing at Pardubice begins on May 8th, which is a public holiday here. There will be a total of 10 days of racing at Pardubice this year – the experiment of holding meetings on Friday afternoon with only bumper races and low-grade hurdles races was, not surprisingly, a failure. Bumper races will continue this year, but as an integral part of the ordinary Saturday meetings. Some of these meetings are to have ten races, rather than nine, as in the past. This seems to me to be too many! There will be more races for so-called ‘young riders’; in fact, anyone who has ridden fewer than 50 winners and has ridden over fences qualifies to ride in these races. The decision to hold the Velka Pardubicka meeting on a Friday and a Sunday has been reversed. The Velka Pardubicka meeting will revert to its usual format, with flat racing on the Saturday and the Velka day on the second Sunday in October.

Josef Váňa is never out of the spotlight for long. I saw him on television after he competed in the Pardubice half marathon, on in-line skates. He compained that a couple of female in-line skaters were quicker than him, but they probably were not 60 years old and (I hope) have much straighter legs than he has. I note that Jan Kratochvil, who has been successfully but painfully learning the craft of steeplechase riding at the Váňa stable, completed the half marathon on his own two legs.    

Czech-trained runners have appeared right across western and central continental Europes in April: in Slovakia (Bratislava), in France (St Cloud, Chantilly, Longchamp, Strasbourg, Maisons Laffitte, Nancy, Lyon-Parilly, Fontainebleu, Wisssembourg),  in Italy (Treviso, Milano), in Germany (Berlin-Hoppegarten, Frankfurt, Munich, Bremen)  in Austria (Ebreichsdorf) and in Poland (Wroclaw). These long journeys have met with some success, but the decent prize money in France is not easy to win.

Last weekend, there was some notable travelling by Czech horses, trainers and riders. Greg Wroblewski trained a winner, Kamelie, ridden by Jan Faltejsek, at Wissembourg, in Alsace, on the Saturday. Then he had two winners in his native Poland on the Sunday, when Lumpík and Blesk won for him at Wroclaw. Even more impressive was Josef Bartoš. He rode a winner at Milano - where racing over fences has been revived - on the Saturday, and made his way by road to Wroclaw to ride the two winners for Wroblewski at Wroclaw. Milano to Wroclaw overnight, even with two jockeys sharing the driving, does not leave much time for sleeping. Milano to Cheltenham would be a shorter and easier journey.

Czech steeplechasing still has the good spirit, a few very competent and intrepid riders and trainers, plenty of passionate owners, and a solid infrastructure. Beginning tomorrow at Lysa, we can look forward to some competitive racing over fences, leading up to Velka Pardubicka day on Sunday, October 12th.