January was yet another mild month, with daytime temperatures rising above zero Celsius just about every day in Prague. However, some quite good snow fell in the mountains for skiers to enjoy. Overall, a very satisfactory month’s weather, except perhaps for companies that usually make a pretty good living out of repairing roads damaged by winter icing.

As in previous exceptionally mild winters, trees and bushes have begun to bud, but the weather forecast suggests that the buds will not get far. There will be some sharp frosts in early February, which is as it should be.

Most of our trainers have little option but to give their horses a rest in the winter months. There is no racing here, and only a few trainers have an all-weather training facility. In January, Josef Váňa took a few jumpers to Pisa, Italy. Filip Neuberg took a horse to run on the flat at Dortmund, Germany a couple of times. At the end of the month, Václav Luka took a couple of horses to run on the flat at Cagnes-sur-Mer, on the French Mediterranean coast. There are no Czech winners to report on so far this year.

However, in January our jumps jockeys Josef Bartoš and Josef Váňa jnr. both rode winners in Italy trained by Paolo Favero. Bartoš has some kind of agreement to ride as Favero’s number one jockey this year, though his family and he will continue to be based in the Czech Republic. Váňa will also ride for Favero when his father does not have a ride for him. Paolo Favero is such a predominant jumps trainer in Italy, with at least two serious contenders in most major races, that the second best job for a jumps rider in Italy is to be Favero’s number two.

It was announced recently that Mimon racecourse has applied to stage racing again this year, in the second half of the season, after two or three years off. The new owner is said to be more interested in horse driving than in steeplechasing and flat racing, but it is good to hear that he has applied for this picturesque course an hour north of Prague to have a race meeting again.

We therefore hope that there will be meetings at 12 courses this season. That is to say, at the four grade A courses, and at eight grade C courses. The grade A courses are Prague Velká Chuchle, Pardubice, Most and Karlovy Vary. Some of the grade C courses hold several meetings: Lysá nad Labem, Benešov, Slušovice, Kolesa and Brno. The other three have just one race day each year: Světlá Hora, Netolice and, we hope, Mimoň. The planned meetings until the end of June can be found on http://www.dostihyjc.cz/dostihy.php

Prague Velká Chuchle holds meetings on Sunday afternoons in April, May and June, and from the end of August until the end of October. This is the headquarters of Czech flat racing, and is very easily accessible by public transport from the centre of Prague. Czech Derby day at Velká Chuchle is on Sunday, June 21^st (note this date – in recent years the Derby has been held on the fourth Sunday in June, but it has been brought forward by a week this year).

Pardubice is 100 kilometres east of Prague, and is the headquarters of Czech steeplechasing. The big event is the Velka Pardubicka meeting, on the second Sunday in October, but there are also about 10 other race days at the course.

Most racecourse, 100 kilometres northwest of Prague, was opened in 1997 as a reclamation project on a vast mined-out opencast browncoal mine. The Czech Oaks is run there – all the other Czech classics are run at Velká Chuchle. Steeplechases are also run at Most. It is a curious racecourse, and still looks like a reclaimed opencast mine, even now when it is well covered with grass and there are plenty of twenty-year-old trees around.

Karlovy Vary – Karlsbad – is a fine spa town about 130 kilometres west of Prague, which every tourist to the country should visit. This is the only Czech racecourse apart from Velká Chuchle that has a mile-and-a-half circuit that is suitable for running a good level race over the classic distances. It also has a fine, historic grandstand, and the hotel/restaurant that fronts onto the street and backs onto the racecourse can be recommended.

All of the major courses are located in Bohemia, the western part of the country, and it is a real pity that there is no well-appointed course in the east, where plenty of our trainers, owners, breeders and fans of horseracing reside. For most of them, the nearest major course is at Bratislava, in Slovakia.

The most flourishing of the minor courses is Lysá-nad-Labem, about 30 kilometres east of Prague, where the meeting on May 1st, featuring the First of May Steeplechase, is a popular festival.

Kolesa is about 70 kilometres east of Prague, between Lysá and Pardubice. It is just north of Kladruby, where the white Kladrubaner horses are bred. It is unfortunately inaccessible by public transport.

Benesov, about 40 kilometres south of Prague, has quite limited facilities, but is in pleasant forest countryside. The hairpin bend considerably less than 400 metres from the winning post is a feature of the flat racecourse.

The biggest course in Moravia is at Slušovice. Local enthusiasts have kept this racecourse going despite many problems since the changes in 1989. To my shame, I have never been there, though do I enjoy watching racing there on television. This year, this year.

I have also never been to Brno racecourse, in south Moravia, which is by all accounts nothing special, though I should acknowledge the considerable efforts made by the local enthusiasts who at least provide some racing in a poorly served region.

The little courses that put on just one day each year are all a delight. I have been to Světla Hora, near Bruntal in north Moravia, in each of the last two years. The local trainers and the local community put on a very good show, and the crosscountry steeplechase course is in good shape. Netolice is a picturesque course with only very basic facilities in south Bohemia, about 130 kilometres south of Prague. The raceday is an enjoyable local festival.

The return of Mimoň is very welcome. Other courses that used to hold race meetings in the past are not necessarily lost for ever. Radslavice, in east Moravia, is still where Pavel Složil trains, and he has been quoted as saying that racing can return there if necessary improvements can be made to the track. The racecourse at the Albertovec stud, with its remarkable jump into the sandpit, is still intact, but the owner seems to be more interested in other equestrian sports than in steeplechasing. I remember my two visits there with great pleasure. Tochovice, about 70 kilometres south of Prague, is still a training centre, I understand.

All of our current courses put on both flat races and jumps races. Pardubice, Kolesa and Světla Hora put on mainly jumps racing. Prague Velka Chuchle puts on just a handful of hurdles races every year, and most of the 20 Sunday afternoon meetings are flat racing only.

As I write this, it is nine weeks from the beginning of our 2015 season, which opens on Sunday April 5th, at 2 p.m. Everybody is very welcome to come racing in the Czech Republic, and I recommend you to give it a try!