Overdose wins at Bratislava, but not in style

Those, including myself, who had looked forward to a series of outstanding performances by all the big stars of Central European flat racing  at Bratislava on July 18th were disappointed.

Hungarian wonderhorse Overdose made his first appearance on the racecourse for 15 months.  The good news is that he got round safely and won, but this was the least brilliant of all his appearances so far. Those who bet on him only got their money back! If all  goes well, Overdose's next race is likely to be at Baden Baden on August 29th. Paddock Revue editor Petr Guth informs me that he took 300 photographs of Overdose at Bratislava, and can  make them available.

2009 Czech triple crown winner and Slovak Derby and St Leger winner Age of Jape was as hot a favourite as Overdose, but his backers did not get their money back. In the Gold Cup, 7-y-o Slovak-trained Camill, long one of our best over a mile and a half, turned in a fine performance to beat Age of Jape into second place.

Steady as a Rock was  a hot favourite for the Bratislava Mile, but he was pulled up in the final straight. Last to finish was Blue Coral, which was sent to see a vet, rather than going  back to the Frantisek Holcak stables, to find out why he is running so poorly this season. The race went to Trinity, trained in the Czech Republic by Zdeno Koplik, which has now won her last three races in some style (apologies for incorrectly referring to Trinity as he in earlier dispatches).

Linda, trained in the Czech Republic by Vaclav Luka jnr, won the Oaks trial. 

The main event of the afternoon turned out to be, after all, the Slovak Derby. Unfortunately, Czech Derby winner Talgado had been withdrawn from the race, and the Bratislava crowd did not get to see his 16-y-o Slovak rider Maria Magdalena Rossak, who had been the youngest ever rider and only the second woman to ride the winner of the Czech Derby. The race was won fairly comfortably by German-bred Innovator, owned by OMS, trained in Slovakia by Zuzana Kubicicova and ridden by Czech jockey Martin Srnec, who recently rode the winner of the Polish Derby. Innovator is by Refuse to Bend (IRE) out of a mare by Intuition. Second place went to Miracle Match, third in the Czech Derby, and third place went to Tutanhamon, second in the Hungarian Derby.

Czech champion jockey Vaclav Janacek rode 5 winners in the course of the afternoon. He also rode 5 winners on his only other visit this year to Bratislava, on June 26th! After riding in Slovakia only on two afternoons this year, he has taken second place in the Slovak jockeys' championship. According to the Czech-language Paddock Revue website, Janacek intends to ride in Bratislava again this autumn, and perhaps also in Poland, and perhaps even to challenge for the Slovak jockeys' championship.    

Oaks,  Velka Mostecka and Albertovska Steeplechase next weekend

The weekend of July 24th and 25th is the high point of the Czech out-of-town summer season. The meeting at Most on Saturday features the Oaks, and also the Velka Mostecka steeplechase, while the meeting  at Albertovec on Sunday features the well-sponsored Category I Albertovska Steeplechase with the famous Borec jump, over a rail into the Albertovec Stud sandpit.