'It's a massive moment' - piece of history on international racing scene on the horizon

Good Morning Bloodstock is Martin Stevens' daily morning email and presented here online as a sample.

Here he speaks to Goffs' eastern European representative Kishore Mirpuri about a significant moment for racing in Poland – subscribers can get more great insight from Martin every Monday to Friday.

All you need do is click on the link above, sign up and then read at your leisure each weekday morning from 7am.

Okay, it isn’t the most important race in mainland Europe on Sunday, but the Wielka Warszawska is still pretty significant in its own way.

That’s because the 13-furlong contest at Tor Sluzewiec racecourse in Warsaw, set to go off at 5pm local time (4pm BST), is the first race in Poland to be granted Listed status by the European Pattern Committee.

The event, with a 478,250 zloty prize fund (circa £90,000 or €105,000), has attracted 12 runners, including German and Swedish raiders.

As I’m at Goffs this week, I thought I’d pick the brains of the company’s eastern European representative Kishore Mirpuri to put the race into some perspective, and see what it means for the industry in the region.

The Polish-based agent was surprisingly ambivalent, delighted by the international recognition for the increase in quality of racing at home but unsure of how things might pan out in the early years of the race.

“It’s a massive moment for Polish racing,” he said. “This is probably the most popular race in the country. There’s always a buzz about who’ll be the Derby winner up to July, and after that it’s all about the Wielka Warszawska. It’s massive for the region as well.  

“I know, though, that some of the local trainers have been dubious whether a valuable race that they rely on to survive will be lost to foreign challengers. You have to remember that a lot of those trainers struggle to make racing pay from month to month and need the big pots to survive.

“That’s part of racing, though. As it happens, in the first year of Listed status the international entries were quite low. I think the Polish Jockey Club could have travelled more to speak to trainers, or request that other jockey clubs send out memos to their members. I don’t think the awareness was there; there wasn’t enough hype generated.

“But it’s questionable how much prestige a Polish Listed race holds at the moment for people outside the region, and the entry fees were also a little too high, perhaps. It was a two-stage entry process, with €550 payable at the first stage and €1,500 at the second.”

Looking at the assembled field for Poland’s first Listed race, it’s hard to believe it isn’t low hanging fruit for a broadminded British or Irish trainer prepared to put in the mileage. It looks winnable, to say the least.

“A smart trainer travelling over from the UK or Ireland would probably win the race easily, it would just be a matter of planning early enough,” says Mirpuri. “I thought there might be a flurry of entries from those countries but I acknowledge there is one big minus point: Warsaw is geographically a long way away. It's a very difficult spot, geographically.

“Even Berlin is 600km away, and of course everything else in mainland Europe is even further than that. And then you’ve got to get them back home again.  

“It’s disappointing there isn’t more international competition in Poland as without it we really don’t know how to rate our horses. Are they 80 or 100? We just don’t know unless they face other horses at that level.”

What makes Polish racing so insular is geography, again.

Mirpuri says: “It’s too expensive to travel the horses, with the cost of a lorry, petrol, grooms’ wages and so on, and because they don’t travel much they aren’t used to it and are too stressed to show their best when they get to where they’re going.

“So we have racing every weekend and the best horses tend to meet every three or four weeks in a good race worth around €10,000 or €12,000. The same horses meet every three or four weeks in races staged within 2,000 metres of each other.

“The Czechs do it the other way around, I gather. They have less than €2m prize-money for the whole season, but their horses make €4m because they travel to run in all sorts of races in France, Germany and Italy, where they go over jumps mostly.”

Polish horsemen might not have much of a handle on the quality of their own horses, due to the lack of foreign competition, but Mirpuri thinks the locals might be fancying their chances in this year’s historic Wielka Warszawska.  

“Looking at the foreign entries, I’m not sure they’re very far above being handicap class, and they might not even get in the first two,” he says. “I’d say the Polish trainers might just be feeling confident.

“There are some not bad horses in Poland. Hipop De Loire, a son of Le Havre bought from Arqana, won a Listed race at Hoppegarten last year and Westminster Race Horses had a very good two-year-old in Poland last year called Lady Ewelina and sent her to be trained by Andreas Wöhler and she’s one of his best three-year-olds in his stable now. She was bought by Tomas Janda for 3,500gns as a yearling from Tattersalls.”

The leading contenders for Sunday’s race appear to be Le Destrier, a four-year-old Le Havre half-brother to French Listed winner Hooking who was not disgraced when fifth behind Simca Mille in the Grosser Preis von Berlin last month, and the last two Polish Derby winners Westminster Moon (a son of Sea The Moon bred by Kenilworth House Stud) and Jolly Jumper (a Free Eagle colt bred by Michael Enright).

Marking our card, Mirpuri says: “Le Destrier should be the one to beat as he has the best form, while the Derby winners haven’t been in the best of form but should give a good account of themselves.  

“Another one I like is Petit [a son of Zanzibari bred by Haras de Montaigu], a Polish St Leger winner who finished second in this race last year, and I wouldn’t rule out Calliepie [a Le Havre filly bred by Al Shahania Stud]. She is with a Polish trainer, Alicja Karkosa, in France and has some decent Listed form in that country.”

The Wielka Warszawska will be broadcast not long after the conclusion of the Prix de l’Opera at Longchamp assuming it goes off on time, along with the rest of the Warsaw meeting, on Youtube on Sunday.

It won’t be appointment viewing in the major racing nations, but turf fans with an international outlook might find it amusing to witness a small piece of history being made.

Mirpuri has been busy this week hosting central and eastern European clients of Goffs. He reports that there are 15 people from the region present, who tend to buy between 25 to 40 horses each year, but it is the Goffs Autumn Yearling Sale that is his cup final, with between 60 and 100 horses snapped up, thanks to the promotional efforts of Goffs and Irish Thoroughbred Marketing.

Mirpuri says: “The reason that I promote Goffs as a good place to buy horses is that first, there is normally an abundant supply of quick horses here, and second, there is such a good atmosphere there that often I invite people over who say they aren’t going to buy something but 90 per cent of the time they end up taking home at least one horse.”  

What do you think?

Share your thoughts with other Good Morning Bloodstock readers by emailing gmb@racingpost.com

Must-read story

"When you see the time, effort and passion that John and his family have put into this farm, it's taken decades to develop a farm to this standard and with that it is impossible to replicate," says Coolmore Australia’s Tom Magnier as the operation buys the famous Strawberry Hill Stud in New South Wales.

Pedigree pick

Thursday's mile maiden at Newmarket (1.50) features a world champion in Ghaiyyath on its roll of honour and has attracted 19 runners, so it should prove to be an informative event.

The one who arguably stands out most on paper is Godolphin debutant Duke’s Command, who was mentioned in this space eight days ago when he was slated to run at Sandown but was scratched due to unsuitably soft ground.

The 1,600,000gns Tattersalls October Book 1 yearling purchase is by Dubawi out of How, a Galileo full-sister to Classic heroines Minding, Empress Josephine and Tuesday. Of course, Minding is the dam of this month’s National Stakes winner Henry Longfellow, also by Dubawi.

How and her siblings are out of emerging blue hen Lillie Langtry, who won the Coronation and Matron Stakes in her racing pomp.