Czech owners, trainers and jockeys have for some years thought of France as a land of opportunity, and more and more of them have done their reconnaissance work and are ready to cash in. There is nowadays considerable interest in the provincial courses in northeastern France, which are not too far away, and offer winnable races with good prizemoney, by our standards.

On November 11th, Czech owners, trainers and jockeys made their most comprehensively successful ever raid on French soil, at Strasbourg. This was by no means a major race meeting, with heavy going, but the results were quite special.      

The opening race, the Prix du Haras de Montier-en-Der, a seller,  was won by Almond Magic, representing Magic Jack, a new owner. Almond Magic is trained at Velka Chuchle by Dalibor Török. The EUR 23000 Prix de Clôture Steeplechase was won by Velka Pardubicka day winner Fafintadenient, trained by Josef Váňa snr and ridden by Josef Váňa jnr. This was Josef snr’s 42 winner this year as a trainer. The Váňa stable was also well fancied to win the Prix Pascal Hervé, over hurdles, EUR 22 000, with Tahini. However, the race went to the Czech-trained outsider New Jape, trained by Pavlína Baštová and ridden by Jan Kratochvíl.

In addition, German-based Czech jockey Filip Minařík rode a couple of winners, and German-based Czech trainer Miroslav Rulec also had a winner.