Overdose with his owner, Zoltán Mikóczy. (source: SITA)
The Slovak derby called RZB Group held is 18th annual race and witnessed a surprising victory by Innovator, trained by Zuzana Kubovičová and ridden by Czech jockey Martin Srnec, hailing from the OMS stable owned by Vladimír Levársky and Peter Šimeček. The race covered 2,400 metres and was open to 3-year and older mares and stallions with total prize money of €65,000.
But the star of the day was famous stallion Overdose who was bought in December 2006 for €3,000 by the Miko Racing group around Zoltán Mikóczy from Dunajská Streda. Overdose claimed his 13th consecutive victory on July 18 after taking a 15-month break for health reasons. His jockey was Englishman Gary Hind and they won the accompanying Cena Mysa race with prize money of €10,000. The horse, trained by Jozef Rosival, won with a markedly smaller margin than in past competitions but managed to fight off threats from a mare from Senica, Boschka, ridden by jockey Martin Srnec. Mikóczy said, as reported by the SITA newswire, that Overdose’s jockey was very professional and did not force the racehorse to do more than just what was necessary.
For those critics who said that Overdose had raced much stronger before his health problems, Mikóczy commented to SITA, “We will all see later. For us, his performance today is a small miracle. It was also crucial that the health check after the race was OK, as he tends to injure himself when running – due to his special quadratic frame and way of running – he kicks his forelegs with his hind legs. But as for me, I personally looked in his eyes – and I finally saw the spark there that he once used to have. He was undoubtedly aware of the fact that he won and he immediately started to act as a model. His self-consciousness is back and I believe that he will still bring a lot of joy to all of us.”
Overdose, as a one-year-old, was auctioned in Britain’s Newmarket for 2,000 guineas (€3,000) and the horse has won 13 consecutive races and netted his owners €192,583. The horse may run next on August 29 at the Golden Horsewhip race in Baden-Baden, Germany and perhaps even on August 20 at the Nunthorpe Stakes in York, England.
