grew used to reports of hatred being whipped up against Jews, communists, trade unionists and freemasons
If you were man enough to ride in it, you were man enough to die for your country. Even in the 1920s, most
of the men who rode in it were cavalry officers. They refused point-blank to compete against a woman in
such a perilous race, claiming that to do so would be an intolerable stain on their honour.
They were persuaded to back down only when the English Jockey Club intervened; and, even then, were
still protesting on the day of the race. Lata joined them at the start in an atmosphere of furiously simmering
hostility; faced them down; raced with them; fell five times; remounted five times; and, unlike eight of the
13 starters, finished.
Having proved both her durability and her courage, Lata was able to return to the race in subsequent years,
gradually winning more respect and eventually being accepted as a kind of national treasure. Her results
improved, but she could never do better than second. Eventually, in 1936, the owner she rode for lost faith
in her and gave her regular ride to a man instead.
The world had changed again by then. Democracy and equal opportunity remained the (theoretical) guiding
principles of Czechoslovak life. Across the border in Germany, however, the extreme conservatism of the
far right had been flourishing. In 1933, Adolf Hitler became Chancellor of Germany, and those two tides
converged, creating a whirlpool of ideological conflict that sucked in much of Europe.
The aftermath of an officers’ race, the closest
the Brandis daughters expected to get to
proper horse racing. Lata is on the rightThe far right grew steadily stronger. The liberal consensus that had given birth to Czechoslovakia seemed,
by contrast, to be dissolving. People grew used to reports of hatred being whipped up against Jews,
communists, trade unionists and freemasons; and against “Amazons” – that is, women who followed
traditionally masculine pursuits rather than staying at home to raise families. A woman’s role, asserted
Hermann Goering in 1934, is to “take hold of the frying pan, dustpan and broom, and marry a man”. The
same year, the Women’s World Games, first held in 1922, took place for the last time.
As the “low, dishonest decade” progressed, the battle for hearts and minds grew dirtier. The Nazis
exploited the new medium of radio to disseminate propaganda and fake news. They also discovered the
power of sport as an ideological weapon. The Berlin Olympic Games of 1936 are the most notorious
example of a sporting event being used to promote the Third Reich’s warped ideals, but there were many
others – especially in sports involving horses. And few arenas mattered more than the Grand Pardubice
steeplechase, where the Nazis could not only present themselves as a master race of invincible Aryan
warriors but also humiliate the neighbours whose land they coveted; neighbours they despised as (in