Tiara Man and Delight My Fire to run at Slušovice

Trainer Radim Bodlák was delighted last Sunday with the result achieved by Tiara Man, which won the Popler Memorial on Velka Pardubicka day, but less pleased with Delight My Fire, which came down at the Popkovice Turn in the Velka.

“It remains to be seen whether we can think about Tiara Man as a horse for the Velka,” Bodlák says, trying not to be overoptimistic. “He’s a complicated character, and sometimes he is hard to convince. It’ll take time to get him to run over longer distances. Sertash Ferhanov got on very well with him, and I’m glad they both got round well. I know that Sertash treats the Drop with a lot of a lot of respect. I told him again you mustn’t put the brakes on before this obstacle. When I saw that they’d mastered it, I knew we could be on to something,” Bodlak added.

Delight My Fire and Swedish jockey Niklas Lovén’s race in the Velka came to an end earlier than planned. “There’s no point talking about what might have been. She didn’t get round, and Niklas himself knows that it wasn’t ideal, but there’s nothing to be done about it. The main thing is that Delina is healthy and back at home.

The trainer doesn’t intend to repeat last year’s journey to Cheltenham. “You make plans for a race like that when things have been going well and the whole team is on a high. This year, her results haven’t been up to much, and we certainly aren’t planning anything like that,” Radim Bodlák affirms.

Nevertheless, these two horses can expect one more race this season. “Both of them are to run at Slušovice. That was always the plan for Tiara, and for him the race at Pardubice was a trial race for Slušovice,” he exaggerates. “And since Delight My Fire got back from Pardubice OK, and didn’t get too far round in the Velka, the owner and I have agreed that we will try to give her a race at Slušovice,” he explains.

Slušovice is Bodlák’s local course, and offers two Category I races on November 4th.

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Based on an interview by Petr Guth, which appeared on the English language pages of Dostihový svět. Photo of Radim Bodlák by Petr Guth