The January 2013 newsletter seems likely to be short, as there is little enough from the recent past to report on, and I do not want to waste the reader’s time with my predictions for the future. I will leave ill-informed forecasting to the multitudes of tweeters, twitterers and futurologists that the blogosphere has created!

 When we write about the past, we tend to rationalize it all, and to present it as if it makes sense from the perspective of the present time. But if It did not make sense at the time, why should it make sense now? For example, the two major races of the 2012 Czech racing season, the Derby and the Velka Pardubicka, produced really impressive winners, the outsiders Kadyny and Orphee des Blins. Neither of these had produced a performance on anything like the same level before the race, and both have disappointed again since. Let us face it, racehorses are enigmatic. Bothe Kadyny and Orphee des Blins remain a mystery. All we can say for sure is that they both had their day on the day that mattered, in 2012. If you see some pattern in what they did, it says more about your tendency to see patterns than about either of these two horses.

At the end of the year, we ask ourselves which was horse of the year, the jockey of the year, the personality of the year, etc. Horse of the year? For me, it is Orphee des Blins. Her performance on October 13^th was just extraordinary. We can watch the old VPs on YouTube, and not one of them was won as brilliantly as the 2012 running. Jockey of the year? How about Marcel Novak, who almost held on to his lead in the jumps jockeys’ championship till the end of the season. He is far from our most talented rider, but he gave everything that he has, especially when it was so hot at Pardubice in June, and when it snowed at Pardubice the end of October.

The Czech racing personality of the year was Josef Vana, of course. At the end of April he broke a thigh, and in October he took 3^rd place in the Velka Pardubicka, at the age of 59. He has long been cast as the man who embodies the spirit of Czechness, and he keeps fulfilling all expectations, while also running a large racing yard, taking his horses to run all over Central Europe, and getting himself fit enough to ride with distinction in the toughest steeplechase on the European continent. He no longer periodically announces his retirement from riding - he now keeps saying he just hopes he can still be around and ready to ride in next year’s VP.  

There can be no doubt that the financial situation in Czech horseracing has been worrisome ever since the political changes in 1989 (and also, of course, for a long time before those changes). The sport depends very heavily on owners (or owners’ companies) not only covering the costs of purchasing horses and having them trained, but also contributing most of the prize money through entry and declaration fees and, on top of that, being major sponsors of racing, advertisers and corporate entertainers. This seems to be a fairly stable and sustainable way of running the racing industry, as there is a steady flow of people who take on and sustain the role of racing’s sugar daddies. The present economic situation is not too good for the majority, but wealthy ‘job creators’ continue to get favoured treatment. There still seem to be enough people looking for an expensive hobby to spend their money on, and choosing racehorses.

In other countries, racing is dangerously dependent on huge amounts of income from the sport’s declining share in the gambling market, or from support from our near-bankrupt states. In the Czech Republic, the gambling industry that sprung up after the changes in 1989 soon found horseracing unprofitable, and direct and indirect government support has been very limited. Trainers, riders, stable staff and organisers of racing know that they face a struggle for survival. The Dostihovy svet Czech language website recently asked Petr Drahoš, manager of Prague Velka Chuchle racecourse, why the racing calendar for 2013 was not published in December, as it was a year earlier. His answer was realistic: “In the situation where we cannot expect help from the state or from the city, and where legislation has been putting us into a worse situation, providing races is a bigger problem than in the past,” Drahoš said. “However, I think that as far as we are concerned we will be able to confirm our calendar for the season in the course of January.” I do not think there is any serious doubt that Velka Chuchle will again hold races on Sunday afternoons in April, May, June, September and October, with the Czech Derby on the fourth Sunday in June.

If I had to make a prediction for 2013, it might be, for example, that something weird and unexpected will happen. At the beginning of 2012, I had no idea that grandstand at Mimon would be stolen, or that Ramzan Kadyrov would decide to send a number of high class horses to be trained at Mimon. There will probably be some important stories in 2013, not at all like these, that are not on the radar as the new year commences. 

Another prediction is that I will continue to write about Czech horseracing, mainly steeplechasing, here on the Dostihovy Svet website, and that I will do my best to inform and entertain the dear reader, to whom I wish a good year in 2013.