At a press conference held at Hotel Pariz on April 10^th, Jiri Charvat, president of the Czech Jockey Club, announced a new general partner for Czech horseracing – Mercedes Benz!

This must be considered a great coup and a considerable opportunity for Czech racing. The agreement with Mercedes is initially for one year, but Ronald Ballhaus, general manager of Mercedes, made it clear that the company is considering a longer term relationship with Czech racing.

Mercedes will sponsor four races and race days:

on Sunday June 21^st, the 95^th running of the Mercedes-Benz Czech Derby, at Prague Velka Chuchle

on Saturday July 18^th, the 70^th running of the Severni Energeticka Oaks, under the patronage of Mercedes-Benz, at Most racecourse

on Monday September 28^th, the Mercedes-Benz raceday at Karlovy Vary, featuring the Winter Queen Stakes, for 2-y-o fillies, and

on Wednesday October 28^th, the Mercedes-Benz Velka Slusovicka Steeplechase at Slusovice.

It was confirmed at the press conference that race days are to be held at 12 racecourses in the Czech Republic in 2015, including, after a break of four years, at Mimon. There are to be 20 days at Prague Velka Chuchle, 10 days at Pardubice, 6 days at Karlovy Vary, at Most and at Lysa nad Labem, 4 days at Slusovice, 3 days at Brno and at Kolesa, 2 days at Mimon, and one day each at Benesov, Svetla Hora and Netolice. Prize money is to be over CzK 50 million, which will be 10% more than last year.

Jiri Charvat emphasized that his priorities as president of the Czech Jockey Club are to raise the quality of Czech horse racing, i.e. to have more high-quality Czech-trained horses and more races for them to run in at the Czech racecourses, and to have Czech racing more energetically represented in regional and international organizations.