May 2014 began warm and turned rainy, but there were no late frosts here this year. In the middle of the month there were high water levels in the rivers in the eastern part of the country, but the heavy rains mostly stopped in time to prevent major flooding. Then there were quite widespread severe hailstorms, and heavy rains towards the end of the month have left small rivers in various parts of the country at high levels. The last 17 years have taught the Czechs quite a lot about flooding, and there is now a good level of preparedness all over the country. Nevertheless, very many people live and work in the floodplain, and the kind of heavy rain that is perfectly normal can cause quite widespread flooding. And perfectly normal periods of drought lead to water shortages.

As midsummer approaches, our main racecourses look fine. Despite the flooding in June 2013, Prague Velka Chuchle looks fine eleven months later. At the recent meeting, Pardubice racecourse appeared to be in as good condition as I have ever seen it. After plenty of recent rain, the grass was verdant and the ploughed fields were OK. I am no fan of those traditional ploughed fields, which are very often either dusty or muddy, with pools of water tending to form on them when it rains. Over the last year, however, Jiří Janda and his team, with their much improved irrigation system, and with favorable weather conditions, have managed to present the whole course, and even the ploughed fields, in good condition.

For Czech steeplechasing, the key event of the month was not the first of the four Velka Pardubicka qualification races, but the race 35 minutes earlier. This was won by Orphée des Blins. This was her fifth win in her last five races at Pardubice, including the 2012 and 2013 VPs, and all five times she has beaten all opposition devastatingly. Orphée tore a strong and large field apart by leading the whole way round. She galloped along comfortably between the fences, gained ground over every fence, and then surged clear in the last couple of furlongs.

The qualification race was won by Nikas, a horse that I have clearly underrated in the past. He won the 3-y-o hurdlers’ championship on VP day in 2008, the Labe Prize on VP day in 2011, a Category I race at Pardubice in August 2012, finished 2nd in the VP in 2013, and he has now won a VP qualification race. Although he does not have the brilliance of Orphée des Blins, he is a good performer who sticks his neck out when the winning post approaches. When he gets an opportunity to win a high-category race, he takes it.

Najinska won the Czech One Thousand Guineas and Simply Ozzy won our Two Thousand Guineas, but both ran a couple of weeks later in the equivalent Slovak races and were well beaten by local horses. Czech flat racing in June will be all about the Czech Derby, to be run at Prague Velka Chuchle on June 22nd. It is far too early in the season to know which of our 3-y-os might win the race, and which of them will turn out to be top horses over the Derby distance when they reach full maturity. The main Derby trial is on Sunday, June 1st, and a lot of horses need a good performance in that race, or in a subsequent race, in order to get a handicap rating high enough to gain a place in the big race. The field for the Derby is restricted to 16.

Although Derby day comes far too early in the season as far as the performances of the horses are concerned, our best horses will turn out on Derby day, and Prague Velká Chuchle racecourse will be at its midsummer best.

One of the current favourites for the Derby is Honza Chipera, owned by Jiří Charvát and trained at Velká Chuchle racecourse by Tomás Šatra. In his recent trial race, Honza Chipera was ridden by Martina Havelková. Martina was our top woman rider a few years ago. She had a remarkable season in 2006, when she won 23 races out of just 83 rides, 11 of these winners being in Category I and above races. Trainer František Holčák chose her to ride many of his top horses. In her great season, she won for example on De Roberto, Forest Man and Scyris. However, from 2009 onwards Martina almost disappeared from the racing scene – the way women so often do. Last year, she moved to Velka Chuchle, and this year she has made a remarkable comeback. She is currently third in the jockeys’ championship, and rode two Group I winners in May, on Honza Chipera and Chardonney Tcheque, both trained by Tomás Šatra for Jiří Charvát. Will Jiří Charvát leave her on Honza Chipera for the Derby, or will be bring in some more or less big name rider from abroad?

At the end of March 2014, Czech racing was embroiled in the dispute over Owner’s Prizes,which even threatened to put off the start of our racing season. Fortunately, a temporary solution was found, but the underlying tensions have not gone away. On May 19th, an article appeared on www.dostihy.cz, written by Jiří Charvát, the third president of the Czech Jockey Club in 2014. In it, he points out that the organisers of Czech race meetings are collectively about 6 million crowns better off than they might have been, due to the decision, basically, to halve the owner’s prizes and to have these prizes paid by the Jockey Club, and not by the racecourses. He calls for a generous response from the racecourses, and reports that Slušovice racecourse has reduced the cost of entry+declaration from the emergency level of 8% to a level of 5% (the standard amount at the other courses, and by no means a small levy). The Association of Throughbred Breeders and Owners (Jiří Charvát’s power base) has announced a new Support Fund, but he states that this fund will provide no support for racecourses that pocket their share of the six million crowns, relax their efforts to search for sponsors, and provide no better conditions for owners.

Jiří Charvát also wants more power as President of the Jockey Club to act on behalf of the whole sport. He tells the representatives of the racecourses that, at the upcoming meeting on June 18th, all participants in horseracing operations should hand over some of their rights to the Jockey Club. He goes on to write: When the Jockey Club is provided with …, e.g., the right to negotiate with third persons with outcomes that are binding on other participants in horseracing operations, I will begin to deal with the media, the betting companies, sponsors, etc. Up to now, this has not been possible. I can come to an agreement about anything with anyone, but nobody has to show any respect for it.

Jiří Charvát also says that he is refurbishing the Jockey Club premises at Velka Chuchle. The grandstand at the top of which they are located is about 25 years old. The Jockey Club’s premises have always been unimpressive, and have become shabby over the years. No doubt it is high time time to refurbish, modernize and re-equip them.

On May 22nd, the Association of Czech Trainers and Riders issued a statement, signed by Josef Váňa, snr., Ing. Václav Luka jnr., Oliva Horová, Filip Neuberg, Jan Demele, Jaroslav Myška and Michal Lisek, who are powerful representatives of Czech racing (mainly trainers). They claim that the organizers of race meetings greatly exaggerated their claims about the unfairness (to themselves) of owner’s prizes in general, and had unfairly criticized the changes that had been proposed since 2013.

The representatives of the Association put forward the standard arguments in favour of owner’s prizes:All the changes in Owner’s Prizes are nothing original, because a similar model functions successfully, for example in France. It was an attempt to protect Czech breeders who are, at the moment, the worst placed of all professional groups in Czech racing. It was to have been a stimulus for Czech owners to to buy local yearlings. Czech breeding is currently in a great crisis and is fighting to survive. The number of Czech brood mares is just half of what it was five years ago. As can be seen, for example, in neighbouring Austria, racing cannot function well without home-breds.

It always worries me when I disagree with Josef Vana, and for that matter with Vaclav Luka jnr and the others, because they all know so much more about racing than I do and they are strongly committed to developing Czech horseracing. I am sorry that our professional breeders are struggling so much, as they are an integral  part of the small Czech racing community. We should all hang together, so that we do not hang separately. But is it not a hopeful sign that the breeders have at last (presumably) got rid of the worst 50% of their mares and can now, perhaps, start producing a bigger proportion of the kind of yearlings that owners will bid good money to buy. The root of the problem is that they have tended to produce the kind of moderate horses that have to be almost given away, but are as expensive to feed and train as better horses are. I hope Czech thoroughbred breeders will emerge stronger from their crisis, and start consistently producing the kind of horses that owners want to buy, evne without the lure of owner's prizes.

I do not think France can be held up as a model for Czech breeders. France is a special case, with extraordianry income sources that the French government does not take away from racing. As for potential Austrian racehorse owners, they can, like Czech owners, take advantage of the open borders, for people and horses, in the European Union, which we all belong to. They can enjoy the opportunity to buy their horses on the wide open European thoroughbred market.

June should see our racecourses at their verdant best, and Derby Day is always a great event. Pardubice will hold a couple of meetings, one of them featuring the second of this year’s four Velka Pardubicka qualification races. I hope the Jockey Club, the owners, the breeders, the trainers, the riders, the racing writers and the racecourse managers will make progress in June in their efforts to find ways to make our sport attractive to themselves, and also to spectators, sponsors, advertisers, the media and any other stakeholders of goodwill.