According to the website of the Jockey Club of the Czech Republic, today's race meeting at Velka Chuchle has been cancelled. The reason given is the unfit state of the ground. Between the 1600 metre mark and the 1800 metre mark, the course is under water.

At the end of a cool and wet month of May and continuing into June, we have had several days of almost unbroken rain in all of western half of the country. When there is very high water in the Vltava, which runs just beyond the causeway on the far side of the course, water is able to make its way on to the course in the part that is now under water via the brook that runs parallel to Dostihova Road.

We are all reminded of the great flood of August 2002, when the whole course was under two or three metres of water. On that occasion, the cascade of dams on the Vltava was not able to contain all the rainwater, and the racecourse served as a reservoir to protect the centre of town. We are told that the dams still have a lot of capacity, and there is no immediate threat of catastrophic flooding in Prague. Nevertheless, the weather forecast for the next week is only moderately hopeful, and next Sunday's meeting at Velka Chuchle must be in doubt.