News
September 2010 newsletter
You may have noticed that I have delayed the newsletter a little this month. Not so much out of laziness, poor time management or being busy. The reason was that I posted several reports on the busy racing weekend at the end of August, and readers needed time to absorb all the information.
Taro gets his nose in front in the St Leger
The autumn season at Prague Velka Chuchle Auto Hase Park began on August 29th the with St Leger meeting. The going was good and the afternoon was cool. The main race, the 65th Czech St Leger, 2800 metres, Listed, prize money 800 000 crowns, was sponsored by Tattersalls. Malona briefly set a modest pace, but champion jockey Vaclav Janacek took over on Makler, and ensured that the pace continued to be moderate. In the run in, Makler and Taro drew away from the field and went head to head in a driving finish (both jockeys were punished for overuse of the whip).
Outsider wins the VP qualfying race - VP favourites warm up satisfactorily
The meeting at Pardubice on August 28th featured two races in which well-fancied entries for the Velka Pardubicka met up. However, at the end of the afternoon we were little wiser as to which horse might win on Ocotber 10th. In the Category II Association of Hotels and Restaurants of the Czech Republic Prize, over 5200 metres, VP 2009 winner Tiumen, ridden by Josef Vana jnr, came up against impressive June qualifying race winner Bremen Plan. However, the race was won, rather impressively, by Mastman (which is entered for the VP, but not yet qualified).
Entries for the Gran Premio Merano
Thanks to Giancarlo Fochesato for the following news about tthe entries for the Gran Premio. This race will be run on September 26th. The names of the 29 horses entered are to be found on http://www.meranomaia.it/it/gran-premio-merano-forst/index.asp... Enda Bolger aims to run two in the Velka Pardubicka - Nina Carberry and J T McNamara to ride
Racing returns to headquarters
After two summer months of out-of-town racing, we return on Saturday, August 28th to Pardubice and on Sunday August 29th to Prague Velka Chuchle (aka Auto Hase Park).
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.
Shamal Sally wins the Oaks, Valldemoso wins at Albertovec
Big meeting at Most
The biggest out-of-town summer meeting in the summer months was on July 24th at Most. The main race was the Czech Oaks, which was won very convincingly by Slovak-owned, Slovak-trained Shamal Sally. American-bred Shamal Sally is by E Dubai, is co-owned by OMS and Miko Racing (co-owner of Overdose), trained by Zuzana Kubovicova and was ridden by Zdone Smida. The Category I sprint went to Another True Story, owned by Yoko, trained by Zdeno Koplik and ridden by Raek Koplik.
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.
Fantastic Derby day on Sunday at Bratislava
Slovak Derby Day at Bratislava on Sunday July 18th offers the prospect of the best day of racing ever to be held in Central Europe.
In the Derby, 16-year-old Slovak girl Maria Magdalena Rossak will again ride Talgado, on which she sensationally won the Czech Derby. Talgado was an impressive winner at Prague Velka Chuchle, and must have a good chance of winning again at Bratislava. The best of the other horses may be Tutanhamon, unlucky not to win the Hungarian Derby, and Slovak-trained Bribon and Innovator.
