September 2016 has been a month of Indian summer in the Czech Republic. The mornings have been a bit chilly, but the afternoons have been sunny and warm. Afternoon temperatures as high as 25˚ are forecast right up to the end of the month.

It has been too dry, of course. The people preparing the course for the two-day Velka Pardubicka meeting on October 8^th and 9^th will be hoping that the rain forecast for the first two days of October falls heavily and precisely on the western suburbs of Pardubice. If not, the team that has prepared the course so well in recent years, under the leadership of Jiří Janda, will face a problem. The irrigation system at the course is much better than it used to be, but watering the winding crosscountry course is not a simple matter. Only real rain from the sky can spread water evenly over the whole racecourse area.

The October newsletter is normally preoccupied with preparations for the Velka. However, September has been a splendid month for Czech racing, and this newsletter is an opportunity to look back with pleasure and gratitude. After all the in-fighting of recent years, everyone at last pulled in the same direction for the wonderful European Jockeys’ Cup meeting on September 24th at Prague Velká Chuchle. Sponsors provided almost CzK 4 million of prize money for the races, and plenty more to bring the international jockeys and reward them for their efforts. Our owners and trainers ensured that the nine races had large fields, and most of our good horses ran. The racecourse was well prepared. Volunteers were in good supply. The sun shone. 7 500 spectators came to Prague Velká Chuchle, an excellent attendance. It was a wonderful day of high-class racing and top jockeys, and at the end of the afternoon, after the national anthem of Kazakhstan had been played in honour of the Cup winner, the jockeys were all at desks in the winner’s enclosure giving autographs. Well done, everybody.

The placings in the European Jockeys’ were 1. Bauyrzhan Murzabayev (Kazakhstan), 2. Václav Janáček (Czech Republic), 3. Gérald Mossé (France). Bauyrzhan has been our champion Czech jockey for the last three years, and is a rising star, only about 24 years old. You should practise pronouncing his name. He is widely acclaimed not only for his riding but also for his commendable combination of modesty and self-confidence. He has been riding abroad a fair amount this year, and he is clearly ready to swim in bigger pool than Czech racing can offer. After conquering Czech racing, Václav Janáček went to Spain about 5 years ago, and immediately established himself as the best jockey there. He takes every opportunity to come back to the Czech Republic and ride here, and to promote Czech horseracing in every way he can. As for Gérald Mossé, he is the most distinguished jockey to have ridden at Velká Chuchle in the modern era. His presence here, and his win on Never on Sunday, were highlights of a wonderful afternoon.

The four major races of the afternoon were won by Sir Sun, ridden by Spanish jockey Roberto-Carlos Montenegro; Dally Hit, ridden by Bauyrzhan Murzabayev; Never on Sunday, ridden by Gérald Mossé; and the biggest race of all, the EJC Million Leram Stakes was won by Austrian-trained Pretorian, ridden by Slovak jockey Jaroslav Línek, whose owner deserves a special prize for the best celebration.

One aspect of EJC day that brings everyone together is the desire to develop a race run in the Czech Republic that has earned black-type status. The EJC Million Leram Stakes, over 1 400 metres, is intended to be that race. I am not well informed about exactly how black type status is acquired. However, I understand that a race must have at least a certain amount of prize money, must have attracted a sufficiently high-class field for a period of several years, and must then maintain that standard. I am sure that every effort will be made to build on the achievements of the first two years of EJC, and to establish the EJC Million LERAM Stakes as a race worthy of black-type status.

The weekend of September 24^th/25^th will go down in Czech horseracing history for another reason, too. Our horses also achieved remarkable success in the biggest meeting of the year over fences at Merano, in northern Italy. Over the two days, Czech-trained horses won six races, all of them ridden by jockeys based in the Czech Republic. (Lukáš Matuský may live in Slovakia, but we claim him as one of ours). Brog Deas, owned by Monte Negro, trained by Radek Holčák and ridden by Lukáš Matuský, won the 42nd running of the Gran Corsa Siepi di Merano, and Kifaaya, with the same owner, trainer and jockey won the Corsa Siepi dei 4 Anni. The EJC Long Elkov Elektro Stakes at Prague Velká Chuchle was also won by a horse owned by Monte Negro and trained by Radek Holčák, Always on Sunday.

Monte Negro owner, Jiři Posád, has had remarkable success, including multiple flat classic winners, with only a few horses, all of them expensively purchased, since he began owning race horses 5 years ago. By his standards, he had been having a dip in his success rate in the last couple of years. Another owner who has had a return to his good luck of a few years ago is Ivo Köhler (KöiDent), owner of Tiumen, whose Mazhilis, trained by Josef Váňa snr, won the 77th running of the Gran Premio Merano Alto. Váňa-trained horses also took 4th and 5th places in this race.Ivo Köhler and Jiři Posád are linked by something else - they will be waiting for their IOUs for their big wins at Merano to be converted into something more tangible, something more liquid, something more spendable.

The phenomenon of good Czech-trained horses going abroad and picking up good prizemoney climaxed in September. As of September 28^th, Czech-trained horses had run at thirty-four different race meetings abroad, thirty-six, if we include Bratislava. On September 4^th, our horses ran at ten different racecourses abroad: at St Cloud, Divonne, Pompadour and Evreux, all in France; at Baden Baden and Dresden in Germany; and at Ebreichsdorf (Austria), Wroclaw (Poland), Merano (Italy) and Budapest (Hungary). This travelling provides further evidence, if needed, of the enlightened work of the EU, which has ensured that there is a single horseracing scene and open borders, at least for horses, throughout central and western Europe.

Unfortunately, the mobility is to a great extent only outgoing. Very few horses trained outside the Czech Republic and Slovakia run in our races. This imbalance is not healthy, and we should be very happy that the top race on EJC day, the EJC Million LERAM Stakes was won by a horse from abroad, Austrian-owned Pretorian (GB), by Sakhee’s Secret(GB), out of a Cosmonaut mare. Pretorian is trained in Austria by Ziva Prunk, and was ridden by Slovak jockey Jaroslav Línek. There is almost no racing in Austria nowadays, and this horse has been running at Budapest and at Bratislava.

I had not intended to ignore the Velka Pardubicka meeting in this newsletter. However, but I am happy to have an opportunity to post the newsletter one day before the declaration of runners and riders for the races at Pardubice on Sunday, October 9th. There will be plenty about Pardubice in these webpages in the next few days, after the runners and riders are announced and Velka Pardubicka fever mounts in the Czech Republic.