August 2010 newsletter
The custom of beginning this newsletter with a retrospective weather report has been fully justified this year. First, we had an extraordinarily long and cold winter, then in April and May there was quite severe flooding, mainly on mountain streams in the east, the north and the south, and then a period of extraordinarily hot and humid weather in July. That was followed by more local thunderstorms and flooding. As a city-dwelling office worker I have not suffered much, but plenty of racehorse trainers have suffered serious damage, and all have had difficult conditions for their work.
Climate change is partly to blame for the floods, which of course come about when there is heavy rainfall. However, I am told that extensive drainage of wetlands in the second half of the 20th century, large areas of new, excessively well-drained roads and housing estates, and a tendency to live and work in flood plains have also contributed greatly. The result is much greater frequency, particularly of flash floods in small streams.
July has been a month of up-country race meetings, some of them in places far away and inaccessible by public transport. I got to the meeting at Lysa, which is only 30 km east of Prague. The new watering system there has already greatly improved the turf, and the whole course has been tidied up. The newly constituted Trainers Association is rightly pleased with the improvements at Lysa. It also gives good marks to Slusovice, a course I have yet to visit. Slusovice, too, has a new irrigation system.
The racing highlight of the month in our region was Derby Day at Bratislava, which I missed. Hungarian wonder horse Overdose made his comeback after being out for 15 months with an infected hoof. He did not produce his usual emphatic win, but he got home. There has been a lot of discussion about whether this was a satisfactory performance, and whether he will win at Baden Baden at the end of August, his next planned outing. Age of Jape, the Czech triple crown winner in 2009, was beaten after a long winning sequence, by Slovak-trained 7-y-o Camill, which has been a good horse by our standards for several years. It really is time for Age of Jape to take on top horses in Germany or France, and to show how good he is.
3-y-o Shamalgan, owned by Kazakh film director Ardak Amirkulov and trained at Mimon by Russian-born Arslangirej Savujev, added to his third place in the French 2000 Guineas at Longchamp by taking 2nd place, beaten by only a neck, in the Group 2 Prix Eugen Adam at Maisons Laffitte. Shamalgan has the same connections as Darsalam. The two rival each other as contenders for the title of Best Ever Czech-trained horse on the flat. Several trainers of flat horses nowadays reckon to run their best horses mainly abroad. For good-quality older horses we offer only very moderate prize money, and for sprint races all our races are round a bend and for small prizes. Shamalgan was bought at auction in France, and qualifies for very attractive owner's prizes - his owner's prize alone, for the recent race at Maisons Laffitte was more than all but a few horses will win in the Czech Republic this year!
The last full weekend in July was the highpoint of our Czech summer racing season. July 24th at Most featured the Czech Oaks, which was won comfortably by Slovak-trained Shamal Sally and the Listed category Velka Mostecka Steeplechase, in which Amber Hill struggled to victory over Hejtman Polny. I never know what to think about Most racecourse, up on the hillside where opencast mining used to take place, overlooking the panel flats of Most. I think my main feeling is of regret. A lot of money was made available to re-landscape the area in the 1990s. Instead of designing a top-class racecourse, they designed a curiosity, with a considerable drop from the high point, 500 metres from the end, down to the winning post. A straight 1200 metre course, also downhill, was constructed, but has now been neglected and unused for the last 5 years or so. Adjacent to the course is the truck-driving racetrack, with truck-drivers, fans, country music, coca cola and hot dogs. At Most it is nearly always either too hot, or distinctly chilly, up near the hilltop. All the same, there is something likeable about Most racecourse: perhaps it is the fresh air and the strangeness.
July 25th was the race day at Albertovec. I had enjoyed going there last year http://www.paddock-revue.cz/en/node/7568 and had every intention of going again this year. However, a wet, grey afternoon at Most and a gloomy forecast for the next day made me doubtful about an 800-kilometre round trip to Silesia. Surprisingly, Sunday morning in Prague started out marvellously bright and sunny, and I resolved to head east by rail with a Sunday network ticket. By the time I got to the railway station, the sun had gone in, and was not seen again that day. Changing trains at Ostrava Svinov, Opava Vychod and Kravare went smoothly, and I arrived at the course in time for the first race. The weather was not too bad, overcast but dry. Rain did not begin to fall until the start of the 7th race on the card, the main event.
Albertovec race day was a festival of equestrianism, like the previous year. The main difference was that the crowd was very large, and it was not easy to get a good view of what was going on. You can see it better than I did, on Czech Television, in a broadcast that I can recommend. http://www.ceskatelevize.cz/ivysilani/410232400101012-jezdectvi/?streamtype=WM3. There was no bookmaker betting at Albertovec (for which Betino deserves a black mark). Betino only organized totalisator betting, with too few outlets. A consequence was that the television coverage ignored the betting and just showed the scene: the countryside, voltige, pony racing, four-in-hand, etc. Congratulations above all to the cameramen, but also to Pavel Fucik, Matin Cap and Marek Stromsky for a wonderful television presentation.
The flat racing was on a 1000 metre track, and most of the steeplechasing involved circuits and figures inside the small track. The jumps are all very undemanding, but the horses need to be handy and the riders able to steer an efficient course. The main race, the Category I Albertovska Steeplechase Cross-Country, sponsored by KOOL, for a prze of 200 000 crowns, amazing for a Czech up-country racecourse, attracted a small field of 6, but all of them were good horses. Valldemoso was the winner of this race in 2009, Roosevelt in 2008 and Juventus in 2007. Tomis won a Velka Pardubicka qualifying race in 2009, and Derby Sharp and Montgomery both ran in the 2009 Velka Pardubicka. Derby Sharp set the pace as usual, as the horses criss-crossed the course. This was out of sight to me, as I had scrambled down to the bottom of the Borec Jump, tweaking my ankle and scratching my hand on the way. This was my first view of the Borec jump. The horses come round a corner and are faced by a log, which they jump or scramble over before making their way down a precipitous sandy bank. I calculated that the bottom of the bank is 10 or 12 metres below the top, and I don't think a human could get down it on her/his feet (certainly not with a jockey on her/his back). However, the horses swept down it pretty comfortably and very swiftly, and very soon disappeared from view. I found out later that Valldemoso produced a good finish to beat Juventus and Montgomery. 6-y-o Valldemoso is nowadays the north Moravian champion, having won this race twice in a row, and also the main race a couple of weeks earlier at Svetla Hora. Valldemoso is already qualified for the Velka Pardubicka, and that will be his target for the autumn. He was ridden by Dusan Andres, now back after 11 weeks out with a badly broken arm.
Albertovec was as commendable this year as last year, and less wet. It is a feasible day trip by train from Prague, though you get home late if, taking the last tram, you are so engrossed in an Agatha Christie novel that you go two stops beyond your own stop and have to walk back.
August offers good racing here, too. Last year's two-day meeting at picturesque Mimon was memorable, and not only for the visit of President Vaclav Klaus and the infestation of wasps. There is a two-day meeting there again this year, on August 7th - 8th. Serious racing resumes at the end of the month, with the 3rd VP qualification race meeting at Pardubice on August 28th and the St Leger meeting at Prague Velka Chuchle on August 29th.