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Turf Gala at Bratislava
The Turf Gala meeting at Bratislava is just about the top flat race meeting of the year in Central Europe, certainly comparable with the Derby days in the various central European countries. Last year Overdose came and conquered, but there will be no such international star this year. There are nine races, first race at 2.25 pm. The two Graded 1 races have attracted top Central European horses.
Robin Healey´s June Newsletter
The Derby is coming, but this is mainly about chasing. In one of my newsletters last summer, I apologized to my select band of readers for writing about Czech flat racing when, I think, most you are mainly interested in jumps racing. Now, for the June newsletter, I will concentrate almost entirely on steeplechasing, to the amazement of one reader, although the Czech Derby is just 23 days away. My excuse is that, at time of writing, we have scarcely seen a contender for the Derby run over a distance of more than 1600 metres. It is too near to the race to write seriously about hopes and dreams, and it really is not worth writing about the Derby on the basis of the various Two Thousand Guineas races in Prague, Bratislava and Ebreichsdorf. When some serious trials have been run, it will be time enough to ponder the Czech Derby.
Italians accepted for Velka
We are glad to announce that, in accordance wiith paragraph 261, the names of two horses, both trained in Italy by Paolo Favero, have been added to the entries for the 119th Velka Pardubicka, 6-y-o Kandinskiy and Poggio Torselli. Kandinskiy has won ten races, and has won once in 4 starts this season, in April at Treviso, and has been placed in his other races. 7-y-o Poggio Torselli has won 7 races, but has not appeared on the course since 2007.There are now 56 entries for the race, 17 of them from abroad. The second qualifying race is at Pardubice on Saturday June 13th.
Velka Pardubicka: 54 entries
Just 54 entries have been announced for the Velka Pardubicka, 15 of them from abroad. The best favoured of the Czech-trained entries will be Amant Gris, which was disqualified after being first past the post in VP 2008; Sixteen, winner of VP 2008 and 2007; and Juventus, placed in VP 2006, 2007 and 2008. Tomis, Mandarino and Pocci finished first, second and third in the May 2009 qualification race. Wrbna Racing lost Moning Let in this qualification race, but still has three representatives: 14-y-o Hastaven and 13-y-o Red Dancer, which hit the last fence very hard at Pardubice on May 23rd when going quite well, and 7-y-o Baggio, which showed plenty of promise as a novice in 2007. Decent Fellow has now been retired, but his owner, Dr Jiri Charvat, has entered German Malt, which has shown some promise. There had been some speculation that Jiri Charvat's champion park-course chaser Royal Mougins would be tried out over the Pardubice cross-country course, but he is not among the entries. Numero Due finished 4th in VP 2008, and could well do even better at the age of 8. His rider will have been disappointed to be unseated when Numero Due ran at Pardubice on May 23rd. 13-y-o Hirsch, which ran the race of his life to finish second in VP 2008, is entered again. Nikodem has a good park-course record in Italy, but did not seem to take to the Pardubice cross-country course in October 2008. Dandys has only run twice over fences, but won a small race well at Pardubice at the end of last season. This grey could be a dark horse. Welldancer and Del Sole are 7-y-os trained by Josef Vana, and both are promising. Some horses that ran in VP 2008 are there again: Mr Land, Marath, Jung and Profil. Among the trainers, Radek Holcak has five entries, and his father Frantisek has three. Josef Vana has six, Cestmir Olehla three and Hana Kabelkova three.
Pardubice: Disastrous qualifying race
Disastrous first qualifying race
With the winners of all four of the 2008 VP qualifying races running in the Town of Pardubice Prize, the first qualifying race for the 2009 Velka Pardubicka, there were high hopes of an exciting race on May 23rd at Pardubice. It was a fine afternoon, but unfortunately most of the rain that had lashed Bohemiathe day before, including much of the Pardubice region, bypassed the racecourse. The going was distinctly hard for steeplechasing, though it was officially given as 3.9, i.e., good. All went fine until the Havel Fence, fourth from home. Moning Let had set a reasonable pace. Juventus and Amant Gris did not go particularly well, but they were still there. Jan Fatejsek on Moning Let attacked the Havel Jump, but was unseated, interfering with Derby Sharp and Juventus. which also lost their riders. Moning Let then made his way off to the right, and soon ended up in the ditch that runs across the course, where the water jumps are. He stumbled in, broke a leg, and later had to be put down.
Czech 2000 Guineas: Age of Jape
Welldancer and Amber Hill win at Pardubice
The second meeting of the season at Pardubice was held on Saturday May 16th. It was a pleasantly warm afternoon after a grey morning. The official going was good, which means pretty firm for steeplechasing. The main race of the afternoon was an oval track steeplechase over 3900 metres, Cat I, sponsored by Ingbau CZ. Amber Hill beat Jam-Bella by a short head, with the favourite Color Man a length away in third place.
This was a quality race with a terrific finish. Jam-Bella, who won four races over hurdles at Warsaw last year, made most of the pace and put up a great fight in the finishing straight, but Amber Hill, ridden by Josef Van*a junior, just got up. The other major race was a Cat II crosscountry race over 3400 metres, sponsored by Color Car. This attracted only 6 runners, two of which fell early on. However, the other four came to the last fence almost in a line. Welldancer, who showed considerable promise here last year, won from Tammybin, Ignacio and Archea. The winners of the two main races are both owned by Hexion-Vana, trained by Josef Vana senior and were ridden by Josef Vana junior.
Czech 1000 Guineas goes to Germany... again
Ganz international
As usual, plenty of Czech-trained horses ran abroad last weekend, with pleasing results at Merano, where Kirasjer and Berbec won over hurdles, and Diktys was only narrowly beaten by Sharstar, Italy*s outstanding young chaser, in the Premio Val di Non. In this race, Belmont finished 3rd, Aspirant 5th, Masini was pulled up and Terracon fell. Kirasjer is trained by Jan Demele, and Berbec by Radek Holcak. British-based Czech jockey Jan Faltejsek rode at Pardubice on Friday, at Most on Saturday and at Merano on Sunday. Over the weekend, our top trainers fought over his services * he rode for Cestmir Olehla, Josef Van*a, Frantisek Holcak, Radek Holcak and, I think, for top Italian trainer Paolo Favero.
May Day weekend in the Czech Republic and around
Mayday weekend
Mayday weekend was a busy time for Czech racing, with the nice sunny afternoons that we are getting used to. There were meetings at Lysa on Friday, Brno on Saturday and Velka Chuchle on Sunday. There were also Czech runners at Leipzig, Munich and Ebreichsdorf on Friday, at Merano on Saturday, and at Surany, Slovkia on Sunday. As far as the upcoming Czech classics are concerned, the most interesting result was the easy win of Bright Sand (Marchand de Sable) over 1800 metres at Ebreichsdorf.
Bright Sand had spoiled an impressive performance at Velka Chuchle recently by veering sharply to the left (not right as previously stated) and dumping his rider on the ground after surging into an impressive lead. The numerous Czech runners in the first meeting of the year over fences at Merano had no success, and Josef Van*a jnr, substituting for the injured Josef Bartos, was lucky to escape without broken bones when Sherento fell.
Overdose changes plans
Overdose changes hands and plans
According to the Czech language pages of the Paddock Revue web site, the Slovak agency SITA says that the Hungarian phenomenon Overdose has gone into different ownership. Former owner Zoltán Mikóczy retains some shares in syndicate that now owns the horse. Overdose will still go to Britain and will run first at Haydock Park. Instead of being prepared for the race by Amanda Perrett, he will continue to be trained in
Hungary and will not depart until just before the race.
Bartos returns home
Jockey Josef Bartos has now returned home after having an operation on broken facial bones following a kick in the face after a fall at Grosseto. He is likely to be out for at least six weeks.
May newsletter
May 2009 newsletter
April has been a month of remarkably sunny, pleasantly warm weather following on from the long chilly winter. The change in the weather, at the end of March, was sudden and very welcome. For a while it was bright and sunny down here in Prague, but there was still plenty of snow up in the mountains. Quite early in April, members of the skiing fraternity confided in me that they had had their fill of winter sport for this season, and were ready for the pleasures of spring and summer.
April really is not the most exciting month for racing in the Czech Republic, unless, perhaps, you own, train, ride or otherwise support a promising three-year-old. Although the Thousand Guineas is just 10 days away, and the Two Thousand Guineas 17 days away, I am not sure that any outstanding horse in the classic year has yet appeared at Velka Chuchle, the only major course that operates in April.