First of all I should say that I was very surprised by acting of those studs. We - me and my friend - planned trip to three best Czech Studs - Napajedla, Doubravy and Strelice. When I telephoned there to ask whether we can come - well, I was a bit shocked. Doubravy - very nice, sympathic, but - Strelice - "oooh... yes, you can...". And Napajedla - the most famous Czech stud? Let's say the unknown person in the telephone was - as I was asking very officially, as a journalist and professional photograph - very incorrect. We were very disappointed by it, but to that trip:
Firstly we went to Doubravy. Unfortunately Mr. Vanda, owner of this stud, wasn't there - which meant that there's nobody who would show us the stallions
When we came there, there was a stallion in a small paddock, and it was easy to find out that it's Bretigny (Sadler's Wells - Baiser Vole, Foolish Pleasure). Very correct horse, resembles Sadler's Wells in this way, but he's not too typical Sadler. He looks wonderfully with long mane, and I have to say he's a horse gentleman - very kind animal, we were immediately friends
He spent most of the time following us around the rail, and in one moment, he was eating and we went some yards up the hill. He saw us on the hill and he just powered to us... Wonderful. He's also great stallion for taking photographs, he stood there like a statue and looked somewhere above us... Just perfect model 
Interesting is that only if we were holding cameras 
Simply - very friendly horse, very correct, but nothing too too special.
After him went out... Secret 'n Classy. He was... breathtaking! You probably know, son of Secretariat out of Classy 'n Smart... He has royal blood and he has the look of royal animal. Although he's little under 16h, he looks grand, tall, he's a mount of muscles... Perfect thoroughbred, I believe the best we have in Czech republic. He's exactly what I imagine as real thoroughbred... Well, I was nicely surprised and I fell in love with him, I admit
To say more, he resembles Secretariat more than I could imagine - he's much darker chestnut, I must say, but it's the only difference. The way he's built, the way he moves, the way he looks, stands... when he was standing at the pasture, it was like if you take a picture of Secretariat with darker colours... I'm very grateful I could see "Secretariat" through this beautiful animal. However, he's not as sympathic as Bretigny - he's a professional. He doesn't need to talk to two girls with cameras, he's "the stallion"... He was just eating, eating, eating. Sometimes he run along the rail - from us and back, from us and back, and sometimes he looked at his stable like he was expecting somebody coming, heaven knows who... Yes, we pet his head sometimes, but in every moment we were watching over our fingers. And as a photographer - it was really hard to take picture of him. I could very easy spend four, five films taking his portraits when he was eating, and those portraits would be perfect, but it was almost impossible to take picture in other position. Especially classic portraits were a nightmare, as he lifted up his head only when he was looking at the stable. It was beautiful position, but unfortunately the only direction where his had was totally in the shadow... I thought I'll be killing But what could we do... I have some portraits, so we'll see. As a curiosity, we saw mares and foals, naturally. One of those mares was Issobeau, daughter of great damsire Lincoln. Lincoln was beautiful horse and Issobeau is beautiful mare, and she puts it into her foals - right now she has two-year-old colt Ingus, dead correct and well matured horse, runner... She has a weanling by Secret 'n Classy right now. Well built chestnut, and when I was looking into his face - believe it or not, but it was like if I was looking at little Secretariat! Typical head, neck, look... I'm not too sentimental in horse-racing, but to me this was one of the greatest moments I remember.
The third stallion in Doubravy is Spinning Wild, son of Spinning World out of Sacahuista, half brother to Hussonet. He was in his stall the whole time we were in Doubravy, so I can say only he is quite friendly and he has nice head.
And about Doubravy generally - Secret 'n Classy is right now the most popular stallion in Czech Republic. Also thanks to his stud fee, which is one third of Rainbows For Life's stud fee. Secret has quality foals there, it's worht saying. Spinning Wild and Bretigny had no foals so far, and I don't know whether Secret is the only sire of foals or not, but I believe that Doubravy stud is on very good way. Compared to stud Mimon (stallions Siam, Signe Divin, Laroche and Alex the Great), they have as little area as Mimon, but their foals are much better - stronger, better built, elegant. They have very good band of broodmares, and - well, I don't believe in Spinning too much, but I hope in Bretigny and I believe in Secret. With these two stallions and with those broodmares, and with Rainbows not anymore in Napajedla, this is an attack to No.1 Czech stud.
Then, on the same day, came Napajedla Stud. Very nice scenery, historical buildings... It could be wonderful experience. Could be...
After that phone call we had instructions to find some person from the directory to announce that we are there. We went there and we found a livestock specialist, who didn't know anything about our arrival, and the result was very unpleasant dialogue with golden point - question "Do you know at least your own name?" As I'm twenty and I attend university, this was little too much for me - and above all, it's not my problem that they have some sclerotic employees who aren't able to say their name in telephone call... Probably it's clear that there was no chance that somebody will show us stallions. We went out to find some mares, famous "rotunda" - breeding place with graves of our phenomenal stallions next to it, and paddocks of stallions.
After secret visit in rotunda, where I took pictures of the graves, and I must say that I was almost crying - with the names like Behistoun, Deux Pour Cent, Masis and newly Dara Monarch... And after that, we found the paddocks of stallions. Some man was just leading a horse - I believe it was Look Honey (Sadler's Wells - Middle Prospect, Mr. Prospector). We asked him to stop for a moment, but those thirty seconds to take his conformation picture and portrait would be probably too long for the man... We at least went to other paddocks. There were three stallions, and honestly said, we weren't able to identify all of them. One of them was almost surely Czech-bred Laten (Mehari-Latina, Masis), but he simply refused to move from the shadow thirty metres from us, so we have no pictures to compare with Beccari, who has similar colour. Second should be Security Risk (Red Ransom - Balinese), theoretically, but he seemed to be too dark, and I need to see photographs to be sure.
But third horse was easy to identify - House Rules, son of Seattle Slew out of Houseproud. Big dark horse, typical Slew, but I wasn't fond of him. He was nervous, and probably also bad-tempered. He's very territorial, well, but he was just totally angry and when his groom led him away and bathed him House Rules made some attacks. Not sympathic animal, not at all.
The rest of the day we spent with mares and foals, on unbelievably big pasture area of the stud. Very bad is that most of the mares don't have halters with names, so we identified maybe ten mares - with some classic winners, well, but still it's too little, because in Napajedla is wonderful band of mares... The best mares in republic, simply. We spent very nice hours there, but we were quite disappointed, because we saw almost nothing from the stud.
And generally too - the band of mares is good enough to produce top Czech bred horses, able to compete with imports. But with this group of stallions... Many of Czech people around racing believe that this is the weakest group of stallions in a very long time. Rainbows For Life went to Strelice, Dara Monarch is dead. Security Risk's foals are disappointing so far - nothing special and his starters are hardly average. Beccari and House Rules are slightly better than average stallions, they are able to produce good horses, but still there's a real star missing in their production... Mill Pond has a name as a sire of steeplechasers, and although he has some good flat horses, it's too little. Laten, top Czech horse, was racing until ten, although with his class he could be easy retired to stud as three year old. Naturally, when he was finally retired, he didn't get no real chance. He is able to give good horses, but nobody will give him a mare with corresponding class. And Look Honey came for this season, and I don't think he'll be a star, although - who knows... Simply, Napajedla seems to be in very bad situation.
And today we went to Strelice. We were delighted that we will see Rainbows, but after two days without the only cloud, it started raining. Exactly in the minute we walked into Strelice stables, naturally. We met Mr. Kubicek, very kind person, who talked to us very friendly and answered willingly anything we wanted to know. First of all we visited stallions, and - naturally - Rainbows For Life. The king of Czech thoroughbred stallions was... well, I almost can't find words. Although he wasn't as mighty as Secret 'n Classy, he is such a tremendous personality... And he looks to be very very inteligent! The previous day I looked into eyes of our top stallions, but it was only Rainbows' look that I could read as in the book... Friendly, although not too much - let's say he's not any sweetheart, but very well behaved. Gentleman with distance. And he stands in his stall, looks through the grating and you can read every his move, every look... Stalls in Strelice are very nice, there's enough light (not to take pictures, but enough to look), so we could see all Rainbows. You wouldn't believe that this boy is 17 - he looks like young stallion, and his constitution - from what we could see, dead perfect! With this, with his reputation as a sire - he has maybe three crops of 3yos here and he's dubbed "star stallion"! - and with a kind of magic all around him... I can't believe I was kissing his nose twelve hours ago... It's like a dream, sweetest dream you could ever have...
This should be and really was the golden jewel of our trip. We naturally saw two other active stallions. Minds Music (Silver Hawk - Misinskie, Nijinsky), is chestnut horse, listed winner, and I must say I'm not his fan. Quite correct horse according some photographs, but shortly - not my type. I saw only his head and back in the box, and I wasn't impressed at all.
Varadar (Machiavellian - Vearia, Mill Reef) is similar case. Half brother to Valanour and Vereva, he's also correct horse. Sorry to write it everywhere, but note that almost all stallions I'm writing about are the best active stallions in Czech Republic. You can hardly expect horses with conformation flaws
I couldn't see any flaw on Varadar, but he isn't too distinctive. And above all - he was just standing in his stall, he even didn't take a look at us! Also nothing too impressive.
But the one thing that suprised me in the stud was - mares. Very friendly mares. In Doubravy, all mares simply let us walk between them, pet them, taking pictures... Mares in Napajedla were mostly running away, and some foals were real terrorists. Mares in Strelice - they saw us and immediately they walk to us! They come to us, took a sniff at us, and they waited if we finally start to pet them...
I love it there. Only thing that I'm sad is that I took only two pictures and only of the mares. No stallions... It was simply impossible in the rain, but I asked Mr. Kubicek when we can come to take a pictures of the stallions and he answered that anytime, so I'm going to travel there once more - as soon as possible!
And in the end - total end - I have to mention one pensioner. Glenstal. He stood here one season as a stallion and since this season is pensioned, in Strelice, just across the road from the main stables. You would probably be terrified to see the yard where he's living - full of tons of indescribable things! But don't worry
Glenstal's stall is the same as in the main stable, which means very light and quite big. You maybe know that Glenstal is blind. He doesn't see anything with his right eye, and he hasn't left eye at all. We were quite shocked when we saw it, because we didn't know it... almost nobody knows it here. Then we naturally asked the girl who led us to Glenstal if he has any problems? We were answered that he has absolutely no problems and he's OK, he goes for a walks and he's happy - that's a thing we could see on our own eyes. Although being blind, he walked to doors immediately and let us pet his nose and face, and he really looked happy. And one more note - Glenstal is 25 this year and we were surprised by his condition, which is - simply great! Glenstal looks perfectly, in very good form, so let's hope he'll spend some more happy years here. And in the end - it's worth saying that the girl evidently loves the horse and Glenstal loves her, so really don't worry - Glenstal is in spending his retirement happy and with people who love him.
Sooo, I thing it's enough, isn't it? I suppose I'll have photos next week (I have classic camera, not digital, so it takes some time), and if there's some good pictures of stallions, I'll certainly publish them probably on my website and I'll put links here.
Quite big surprise to me... Well, I didn't know that tose sires had limited opportunity, I didn't know anything about it! Great to know. One of my favourite sayings is "everything si relative", so you know, that fact changes everything... Very bad is that similar informations aren't too much known. In every stallion prospect - at least here - you can read that Secret did quite well in Germany, he had some good foals... something about limited number of bred mares? Not at all. It's very bad.