Hope for Hungary Horse Racing
At a horse auction at Newmarket in 2006, Zoltan Mikoczy sat listening to Sandor Ribarszki as he warned him off buying the sad looking horse standing in front of him. He was not the best looking horse and short by racing standards. The nameless horse that no-one wanted waited patiently to see if anyone would purchase him. In all the excitement of the electric atmosphere of the auction, Mikoczy raised his hand and bought the horse for two thousand one hundred pounds, without opposition. He named him Overdose, and after training with Ribarszki for only a short period, both men realized that they had purchased an astounding racehorse.
It is unfortunate that the government of Hungary has turned its back on the sport of horse racing. With the biggest track in the country belonging to the government, and due to their lack of interest, the facilities and the sport have been neglected. Thus Overdose has to settle for modest accommodation when at home, as his owner struggles to provide him with the best care and to revitalize horse racing in Hungary. And Mikoczy believes he has just the horse to do the job. Hungary was home to one of the most legendary fillies of all time, named Kincsem. When she retired, she was unbeaten in all of her fifty-four career starts. Racing in the 1870’s she is still remembered throughout Europe.
Overdose, on the other hand, is making a name for himself in countries other than his own, and in the last two years he has been unbeaten in all ten of his career starts. Earlier in the year, his victory in Germany, in the Baden-Baden, earned him a place in the Prix de l’Abbaye, a Group one event taking place next Sunday at the Longchamp Racecourse. Mikoczy hopes that as his popularity on the international stage grows, Hungary will start to take notice and hopefully begin to support the revival of horse racing. Overdose is an extremely over enthusiastic horse when it comes to racing. Training jockeys need to hold him back most of the time and regular jockey, Andreas Suborics, has his hands full at every racing event, fighting to keep Overdose from running himself into the ground. As things stand, Overdose will be running and astounding spectators in destinations around the world, until horse racing finds new life in Hungary.
