January 2012 newsletter
December is not a month that usually produces much horseracing news in the Czech Republic, and this month we certainly had nothing to compare with Kauto Star’s win at Kempton Park. What a horse! Perhaps, after all, Kauto Star, rather than Josef Vana, is world steeplechasing’s personality of 2011.
December 2011 in the Czech Republic has produced a lot of heat and very little light at Dostihovy spolek, organisers of events at Pardubice racecourse. The most recent events and non-events have already been covered on this site, and will continue to be covered in 2012. However, there may be a lull until the general meeting of Dostihovy spolek in February, which will be a must-attend event for fans of blood-letting, invective, vindictiveness and, probably, absurdity.
The experiment of getting rid of (almost) everyone connected with Pardubice racecourse who knows something about racing has failed, not surprisingly. Dostihovy spolek is in complete disarray, with various small groups of small shareholders running amok and the leadership faced only with options that are unacceptable to it. The sooner good professionals are brought in, the better.
The co-option of Vaclav Luka, long-term president of the Czech Jockey Club, to the board of Dostihovy spolek may be seen as an overdue attempt to ensure that the voice of horseracing is heard in the association. However, there are some problems. Firstly, it is not clear that the board is allowed to co-opt new members, and Luka's co-option will certainly be bitterly disputed. Secondly, Vaclav Luka and other leading figures in the Jockey Club, are excessively engaged in many aspects of Czech racing: as racecourse owners, as racehorse owners, on the board of Betino, the monopoly bookmaker, as horse breeders (I think), etc., and it is hard for them to maintain the independence that leading decision-makers need to have.
There are endless complaints that too much power is concentrated in the president and his small circle, and that decisions are coloured by their interests. The point is not whether the complaints are justified, but that they cannot be shown to be unjustified.
Vaclav Luka is of course aware of the problem, as he cannot avoid hearing the ungenerous things that are said. His argument is that he would be only too happy for others to be more active, and if he did not need to put in so much work and intervene personally so much. My view is that a more effective effort might be made to attract more people into active involvement, and to give them more autonomy when they do get involved. There is little motivation to try some new initiative if you think those in control can and will squash it if it does not suit them.
Vaclav Luka’s instinct is to keep Czech racing under quite a tight rein, and ensure that major decisions are under the control of a small group of people loyal to him. Nevertheless, he has worked hard for Czech racing for many years. Czech racing has certainly survived some very difficult years under his leadership, though it might also be argued that the sport failed to forge ahead in the good years before the present crisis.
This website is interested in international horseracing, and observes Czech racing from that perspective. International racing has not been a priority of the president and his team: there has been some support for outgoing Czech horses and riders, but only limited apparent interest in or support for incoming contestants.
It has been announced that the longlasting collaboration between owner Ardak Amirkulov and trainer Arslangirej Savujev has come to an end. Darsalam and Shamalgan, the two most highly-rated flat horses ever trained in the Czech Republic, were Amirkulov/Savujev horses, and the Amirkulov/Savujev partnership enjoyed plenty of other successes together, too. The Amirkulov horses will now be trained by Tomas Vana. Savujev, who came from Russia to the Czech Republic via Slovakia about 20 years ago, has always made a point of training just a small number of horses, and there can be little doubt that owners of good horses will soon fill his boxes. His owners have until now been mainly from Russia and Kazakhstan.
Josef Bartos had quite a bad fall in Italy in mid-December, breaking a vertebra in his neck. He will wear a brace for a month, and then a decision will be taken on whether he needs an operation, or whether a second month in a brace is all that is needed. Josef Bartos has had more than his fair share of injuries in the last four years or so. He will clearly miss most of the winter season in Italy. He had been hoping to pick up plenty of rides in Rome, though this winter he was not to have been retained by top Italian trainer, Paolo Favero, for whom he was second jockey last winter (Josef Vana junior has displaced him). With 29 wins, Josef Bartos finished this year in third place in Italy, the same place that he occupied in the Czech jumps riders’ championship.
This internationally-oriented website is proud to announce that 7 of the top 11 jumps jockeys in Italy in 2011 are from the Czech Republic (though our claim to Jiri Kousek is through only one of his parents). This is a remarkable breakthrough by the top Czech jockeys, who just a few years ago were regarded by the Italian owners and trainers as unknown quantities, and they were engaged almost exclusively to ride Czech-trained horses. Now they are clearly an integral part of the Italian steeplechasing scene. It is also a credit to Italian owners and trainers that they have accepted these invaders from the north into their sport. Let us hope that Italian racing will not be as severely affected as seems likely by cuts in funding in 2012.
My statistics leave out first and second in the Italian jumps riders’ championship, presumably Rafaello Romano and Dirk Fuhrmann, and include only the Czechs: 3rd place, Josef Bartos (29 winners); 5th place, Josef Vana jnr (17 winners); 6th place, Jan Faltejsek (13 winners); 7th place, Jiri Kousek (9 winners); 8th place, Jaroslav Myska (6 winners); 10th place, Marek Stromsky (4 winners); 11th place, Dusan Andres (4 winners).
Josef Bartos writes a column for the printed edition of Paddock Revue. In the January 2012 issue (which appeared in mid-December, but unfortunately did not include the results of any of the races run later in the month), he announced the decision to keep Sixteen in training for another season. Before the 2011 Velka Pardubicka it had been assumed that it would be her last race, and that she would take on maternal duties in 2012. However, she did run rather well on the second Sunday in October, as she always does, and owner Jaroslav Boucek no longer has another VP contender since Ready for Life’s accident in the summer. Sixteen is by Rainbows for Life (CAN) out of Semantica (FR) (Tel Quel (FR)), which does not make her valuable as a brood mare. Her record on the second Sunday in October, since 2006, has been: winner of the Labe Prize, then 1st, 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 2nd in the Velka Pardubicka. She will be 12-y-o on January 1st.
Amant Gris, also a French-bred grey, is in the news, too, though he was retired after the VP. He was selected, along with several other VP runners, for an out-of-competition blood test some days before the race. In this test, some traces of a substance used for treating stomach disorders were found. Trainer Radek Holcak received the standard punishment of 6 months conditional withdrawal of his trainer’s licence. He claims that the horse had had no stomach problems and that he had not administered the substance to him. According to the Paddock Revue Czech-language web pages, however, he sees no point in appealing: “I’m not going to wage any administrative wars through an appeal. I accept this verdict as a decision that will in no way stop us preparing our horses for next season. Rather than using my energy on arguments that probably would not shorten the punishment, I prefer to get on with my work. We can already start concentrating on it now.”
He is none too happy that the verdict is for a substance that can scarcely be considered as doping. “It is a substance that does not help horses in any way, and it is evident that Amant Gris got contaminated when he entered a box after another horse had been treated there. It’s annoying that the rules of the Equestrian Federation allow this substance, but it is still on our banned list. However, there’s nothing to be done but to accept it and put it behind us.”
Plenty of Czech flat jockeys also ride abroad nowadays, and two of them have been in contention to be champion jockeys - Filip Minarik in Germany, and Vaclav Janacek, in his first year in Spain. Minarik is currently placed to win the championship, and Janacek is placed to take a very creditable second place behind Jeremy Croquevieille. Tomas Lukasek has been riding successfully in Malaysia, benefitting from being introduced by Prague-based British globetrotting jockey Gary Hind. Gary Hind has also been riding in Malaysia. Martin Srnec has been a leading jockey in Poland for the last year and a half. We like our jockeys to do well abroad, and we recognize that there are much better opportunities out there for talented riders. Our 7-month season, with racing only at the weekends, and with very modest earnings even for a top jockey, offers very limited rewards. But who is going to ride here?
The weather in December has been very reasonable, very mild. There has been some rain but no snow worthy of the name here in Prague, and only a limited number of icy mornings. Nevertheless, there is ‘good snow’ in some of the Czech mountain skiing resorts. The only good snow, as far as I am concerned, is melted snow. However, I do not begrudge the Czechs their winter sport, in all aspects of which they participate with great enthusiasm. Inexpensive cross-country skiing in uncrowded locations out in the cold fresh air is a remarkably popular, though strenuous, sport here.
New year’s greetings, dear readers. I hope one of your resolutions will be to come racing in the Czech Republic in 2012. Even better if you own a pretty good, versatile and handy jumper. Have it very specially prepared, and bring it over for the VP, and win. The Czechs have had their own way in that race for far too long. There has been no foreign winner since 1995.