Newsletter - May edition

I have just come from the season opening press conference of Dostihovy spolek, organizers of racing at Pardubice, held in Wenceslas Square, in Prague, right opposite the tent in which Prague Velka Chuchle racecourse is advertising itself. If you are in the centre of Prague between now and May10th, you can go to the tent, near the top of the square, gather information and ride the simulator, which allegedly shows what it is like to ride a racehorse.

At the press conference, Mirek Petran, Chairman of Dotihovy spolek, organizers of racing at Pardubice, apologized for the cancellation of the new season-opening April meeting due to the state of the course after the exceptionally long and hard winter. An April meeting of oval track steeplechases, hurdles and flat races will be attempted again next year.

This year’s Ceska Pojistovna Velka Pardubicka will carry prize money of CzK 4.5 million, equaling last year’s record. By the way, we were asked to keep mentioning the name of the sponsor, a major Pardubice-based insurance company. This made my editor grunt, as his “real job” is with rival insurance company Allianz! He reminded us to note that World Cup football games will be played “at the Allianz Arena”, and not “in Munich”.

There is nothing concrete yet about foreign entries for the Velka Pardubicka, but the name Nina Carberry was bandied about. Of course, we will be delighted if she comes to Pardubice in October. I have not seen the race conditions for VP 2006 yet, but entries are usually announced in mid May.

Racing at Pardubice this season begins on Monday May 8th, which is a public holiday here. The main race is the COLOR CAR Prize, a crosscountry chase over 4500 metres. The runners include Decent Fellow, Cieszymir, Red Dancer and Bagdad. My tipping has been terrible this year, so I will not put the hex on my favourite horse by mentioning his name here, or by pretending to prefer Red Dancer, Cieszymir or Bagdad.

The first steeplechase meeting of the year was held at the end of April at Radslavice, Pavel Slozil’s stable. This is a long way away, near Prerov, and I did not make it. A remarkable feature of the meeting was that the first ‘bumper’ attempted here in living memory attracted so many entries that the race was split. I hope that more bumpers will now be organised – the race conditions for the second half of the season have not been published yet.

Mayday at Lysa-nad-Labem, not far east of Prague, was as usual an entertaining day out. The main race, the First of May Cross-Country Steeplechase, sponsored by Hotel Meran (located on Wenceslas Square in Prague) and by the political party ODS, was won very comfortably and impressively by Ner, who won the Paramo Gold Cup in 2004, but ran only in Italy last year. Ner was ridden by Josef Bartos and is trained by Josef Van’a. He is to run next in Milan in mid May, but Josef Bartos is likely to choose Pessoa rather than Ner. Pessoa, also trained by Josef Van’a, likewise ran only in Italy last year. In late April 2006, Pessoa ran in a big race in Milan, taking second place ahead of Masini.

At the press conference it was said that trainer Cestmir Olehla is planning to take four horses to Auteuil at the end of May: Masini, Kolorado, presumably both going in the Grand Steeple-Chase, and also Sun Set and Lark, presumably for other races. If all goes well, these four may well run again in France, and an excursion to England is not ruled out. And how about Josef Van’a? Almost every weekend he takes horses to run abroad. He is seriously considering taking horses to Britain this year, and Cheltenham and Aintree have been mentioned. The horse most likely to cross the channel is Juventus.

After the first weekend of steeplechasing, jockey Josef Bartos is leading the jockeys’ championship, with three wins. He has already had seven wins this year in Italy, and is near to the top of the jockeys table there. As No. 1 jockey to the Van’a stable, he gets a lot of good opportunities all over central Europe, and we can also hope to continue to see him riding at the Czech racecourses, at least on the main race days.

Mirek Petran is looking forward to a meeting in France at the end of May to discuss the international dimension of steeplechasing in Europe. Cheltenham’s Edward Gillespie, a very good friend of Czech steeplechasing and of cross-country steeplechasing, will be there. I agree with Mirek that every major sport needs its major international events, and that even French, British and Irish steeplechasing need the rest of the world.

The recent issue of Paddock Revue was even fuller than usual of good photos. The articles of interest to international readers were about Pardubice racecourse. There is an interview with Jiri Janda, a successful trainer and a qualified vet before he became manager of Pardubice racecourse after the Changes in 1989. When Dostihovy spolek took over management of the course, he continued as course manager for some time, overseeing the redesign of the obstacles, which had long been notoriously dangerous and had also become neglected in the 1980s. Jiri Janda is also well-known through his long-term connection with televised racing from Pardubice (which only involves a few days per year). Now he has reverted to training, but on a much smaller scale than before 1989, when, as one of the main trainers linked to the Napajedla Stud in the 1980s, good horses were regularly allocated to him. In 1990, he trained the Derby winner, Gimt.

Another article in the same issue, by well-known east Bohemian television personality Vlastimil Weiner, discusses the crisis at Pardubice racecourse. It is well known that Dostihovy spolek had difficulty finding the cash to pay the winner of the 2005 Velka Pardubicka, but that the payment has now been made. Dostihovy spolek began in 1993 as a group of Pardubice citizens who wanted to ensure the future of racing at Pardubice in the uncertain times after the changes in 1989. This was a group of sportloving friends, most of them also fans of Pardubice’s other major sport, ice hockey, and many of them active in local politics in the ODS party (known to its many enemies as the ODiouS party – in Slovakia a major party is HZDS, known to its enemies as the HaZarDouS party). Gradually the ODS has splintered, in Pardubice and in the country as a whole, though it remains the strongest party of the right.It is now gearing up for the General election on the first weekend in June. In 2001, when he went to manage Prague Velka Chuchle racecourse, main shareholder Petr Drahos, and an associate, sold their shares in Dostihovy spolek to Dr Martin Vokal, a Czech-born medical doctor living in Switzerland. Martin Vokal probably made a misjudgement in becoming the main shareholder, as he does not live locally and - I think - is not a big racing fan. And, last but not least, his investment is unprofitable. Last winter, the Town of Pardubice, which owns about 30% of the shares in Dostihovy spolek, was asked to provide more funding. Dostihovy spolek used to have enough political influence to obtain Town money for the racecourse, but times seem to have changed. The Town, quite reasonably in my view, said that it would put up money, but only if a rights issue were made. “The Swiss” were not in favour of throwing good money after bad, but will probably have to choose either to take up their rights or let others buy them – in which case the Town would buy them and become the main shareholder. This is the background to Vlastimil Weiner’s article, which is written in the allusive style that was more widely used before 1989 than nowadays. In those days, all officials had to be praised, but insiders knew which praise was sincere and which was satirical. People I spoke to at the press conference and at the races last weekend were not able to say for sure which bits of Vlastimil’s article were satirical, and just how satirical they were, and did not necessarily agree with my assessment. In any event, I will translate the article when I make time, and will publish it on this web site, and you can make up your own minds.

The 2006 racing season and future racing seasons are likely to be influenced by the arrival of Czech Televison Channel 4. This is a sports channel, and it will need lots of content. Already horse racing is getting much more exposure. There were live transmissions from both Velka Chuchle and Lysa-nad-Labem last weekend. I hope this will be a big opportunity for talented people like Marek Svacina, who has for years commented on racing on TV, and Martin Cap, who, though still a student of journalism at Charles University in Prague, has been writing well about racing for several years, including articles for Paddock Revue.

Before bringing this newsletter to an end, I should mention the latest developments in two issues brought up in earlier newsletters. Jozef Rosina obtained a favourable judgement in the Monolit affair case in Austria, and Ebreichsdorf racecourse has been ordered to pay the prizemoney to him, with costs. However, Ebreichsdorf has the right to appeal … Jozef Rosina’s Alain won the trial race for the 2000 Guineas last Sunday, so he had a good April 2006. And I recently congratulated the owner of a horse that had run well enough to get into the Derby field. I said that I assumed the horse would now be aimed for the Derby, but was told that, unfortunately, geldings are not qualified…

I had been planning in this newsletter to gripe about our monopoly bookmaker, Betino. Last year, TMM offered fixed odds, and TOTO CZ ran the totalisator. These have now merged as BETINO, making things slightly worse for the beleaguered punter, in my opinion. However, I have already written too much, and will hold BETINO over until a future occasion. No doubt you can imagine what I am going to write. After all, I am known to be unimpressed by the argument that bookies in Britain are a fine example of the advantages of competition and free enterprise. In my view, they are a fine example of how cartels exploit the downtrodden masses. But more of that another time!

The Czech racing season is now in full swing, with racing every weekend until November. Much detailed information is available on http://www.dostihy.cz/dostihy.php