October 2018 newsletter

The heat wave that had begun before the Derby and lasted until after the St Leger finally gave way to mild weather at the beginning of September, and the oppressive heat became just an unpleasant memory. September in Prague is usually a month with pleasant, mild weather and lovely autumn colours, as it was again this year. In the course of the month, the days shorten and the mornings begin to be chilly. Five weeks from now, at the beginning of November, our racing season will be over, and then there will be a full five-month period before the next Czech horseracing season begins in April 2019. Ambitious trainers will continue to send their horses to run abroad, and ambitious riders and stable staff will take up short-term or long-term opportunities abroad.

The high point in Czech racing in September 2018 was European Jockeys’ Cup day at Prague Velká Chuchle racecourse. The efforts of the organizers and sponsors were rewarded by the participation of 16 jockeys from 15 different countries, and by the participation in the four major races of a number of high-quality horses. The most notable horse was the legendary sprinter Gordon Lord Byron, which was flown out from Ireland. This was the first horse ever to be flown in for a flat race in the Czech Republic. Gordon Lord Byron got an unfavourable outside draw, but went to the front 250 metres from home, before fading, and finishing only 5th.

On EJC day, there were also some notable Czech-owned runners that are trained in the Czech Republic but usually run in France, where there is much better prizemoney and also big bonuses for owners of horses that qualify as French-bred. Trainer Václav Luka trains several horses in this category, and owner LERAM - a main sponsor of EJC day - wanted LERAM horses to run on EJC day. Hot favourite Pardon My French finished only 2nd in the Pemat Trading Gersha Memorial for 2-y-os, but 7-y-o Wireless won the EJC Lokotrans Middle, quite easily, and Troizilet won the EJC LERAM Million. Of these three, only Troizilet had run in the Czech Republic before, when he finished 2nd in the EJC LERAM Million in 2017. Luka also trains the winner of the EJC Baltro Long, Rousse, which was also making her first appearance in the Czech Republic. The day was a well-deserved triumph for Václav Luka, jnr. He has emerged as a major trainer in France in the last three or four seasons, and in that same period he has been essential to the establishment of EJC day. The 4th European Jockeys’ Cup day showed us all how far Václav Luka has progressed since he decided to focus on being an international trainer.

It was a slight disappointment that we did not have a really close finish involving several top jockeys from abroad. The most memorable finish was in the EJC Baltro Long, in which Bauyrzhan Murzabayev, representing Kazakhstan, on Luka-trained Rousse, and Wladimir Panov, representing Russia, on our Derby and St Leger winner, Blessed Kiss, drew well clear of the rest. In a hard-fought finish, Murzabayev won by a head. As the horses slowed down after the finish, there was a warm handshake between the two jockeys, who are good friends and both now ride in Germany.

Generally speaking, it is not possible to get the top jockeys in Europe together on a Saturday afternoon in September. Nevertheless, the 16 jockeys on EJC day were an interesting group of good professional riders from the leading flat racing countries, plus top jockeys from Greece, Cyprus, Qatar, Portugal and Spain. They had all come to compete for some decent prizes, of course, but also to meet each other, to entertain a good crowd, and to have a pleasant day or two in Prague. It is a pity that the riders from the less famous horseracing countries were not selected for good rides in any of the four prestigious races – our owners and trainers favoured known and trusted Czech-speaking jockeys who know Prague Velká Chuchle racecourse well, and will make themselves available to ride for them in good races here in future – indeed, less than a week later, last Friday at Karlovy Vary, Bauyrzhan Murzabayev and Václav Janáček both rode winners at Karlovy Vary.

Congratulations to Bauyrzhan Murzabayev on winning the EJC again, though, to be honest, he did not need to do much more than point four very good horses in the right direction. Given his four rides, I think any of the 16 international jockeys would have won the EJC, though perhaps not by quite such a big margin as Bauyrzhan did!

Czech television showed EJC day live for three hours, which was I think the longest ever flat-racing programme on Czech television. I watched it with considerable pleasure. Czech television nowadays has a team of presenters, analysts and commentators who are very competent, and the photographers and producers provide a visually outstanding look. Either by accident or by design, the television coverage began by showing the pony race for children. It was won by Matyáš Luka, whose father was as pleased with this result as he was with his three wins in prestigious EJC races. I have heard that there  were very good numbers of viewers for the EJC coverage. Keep up the good work on horseracing, ČT Sport.

October is about to begin, and October in Czech horseracing means the Velka Pardubicka. The race will be run on the second Sunday in October, as usual. This year, the second Sunday in October falls on October 14th, the latest possible date. This means that VP day is still two weeks away, and runners and riders will not be announced until October 5th. I prefer to leave giving tips and predicting the future to others who may, or may not, be better at picking winners than I am. I hope they are more successful than I am! My colleague from work won a very nice jackpot on the tricast at Chuchle today – I was impressed by how pleased I was for him! When I have some firm news about the VP, I will post it on this website.

With just a month to go, it is time to look at the Czech jockeys’ championship. Among our flat jockeys, David Liška leads with 28 wins, from Beysim Ferhanov, with 21 wins, and Adam Florian, 19 wins. David Liška got most of his wins in April and May, and has got going again in recent weeks. It seems unlikely that he will be caught. Beysim Ferhanov got most of his wins in May and June. Liška has had two-and-a-half times as many rides as Ferhanov. All three of these leading riders are young, have ridden fewer than 50 winners in their lifetime, and still claim an allowance in Category III and lower races. Ferhanov’s lack of opportunities has been partly due to a tendency to pick up suspensions for overuse of the whip. Veteran jockey Jan Rája rode three winners this last weekend in September, and drew level with Adam Florian in third place, though with fewer second places. At Karlovy Vary last Friday, Jan Rája rode his 500th winner, which makes him a member of an exclusive club.

David Liška’s next winner will be his fiftieth, and will earn him the title of jockey, and he will appear in the programme as ž David Liška. He will become the youngest Czech rider to win the title by a margin of half a year, if he gets there in October. He has only recently begun the last of his three years at the school for apprentices at Velká Chuchle.

2017 champion Marcel Novák has led our jumps jockeys’ championship throughout the season, but Sertash Ferhanov has now closed in on him. With his win today, Ferhanov moved level with Novák on 14 winners. Jan Odlozil is in third place, on ten winners.

For some years now, our top jumps jockeys have ridden a lot outside the country, and have not necessarily made their way to places like Netolice and Brno, for example, where there are a typically a couple of Category IV or Category IV races over fences and the rest of the races are on the flat. Marcel Novák has ridden 6 winners at Mimoň this year, 5 of them in Category V races. To be fair, he has also ridden quite a lot abroad, and his loyalty to this partner, trainer Lenka Kvapilová, for whom he has ridden 5 winners in the Czech Republic this year, is to be commended. 

More recently, larger numbers of our flat riders, too, have started looking beyond the Czech Republic. Some have based themselves abroad, while others live here and make frequent trips to ride in other EU countries. Czech-based Martin Laube, for example, has this year been riding a lot, and getting his best opportunities, at Budapest and Bratislava racecourses.

It looks as if I will finish this newsletter and post it before the end of September, with even a few hours to spare. October is usually the month when I post most items on this website, and I will be trying to keep you informed here about the 2018 Velka Pardubicka in the coming weeks.