This is the 14th season that Petr Drahoš has headed TMM s.r.o., organizers of horseracing at  Prague Velká Chuchle. A few weeks after this year’s Mercedes-Benz Czech Derby, we spoke with him not just about the highpoint of the flat racing season, but also about the Stock Exchange race day in July, about the European Jockeys’ Cup in September, and about the development of Prague Velká Chuchle racecourse, planned investments, how Czech racing is financed, and also about what inspires him in his work.

This is a translation of an interview with Petr Drahoš, http://dostihy.fitmin.cz/domaci-dostihove-deni/s-petrem-drahosem-o-derby.html, which first appeared in Czech language in Fitmin&Turf Magazin. The interview was made by Miloslav Vlček, editor-in-chief of Fitmin&Turf Magazin.

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Three weeks ago, the Czech Derby was run - the highpoint of our flat racing season, and of the season atVelká Chuchle. The race was this year for the first time sponsored by Mercedes-Benz. Have you had any feedback from the sponsors yet about how satisfied they were with the linkage between their name and our Derby, and about whether they will sponsor the Derby again next year?
I think the representatives of Mercedes-Benz were satisfied with the event. As organizers of the event, we don’t enter into a direct business relationship with them. Their contact is with the Jockey Club. Of course, the presence of such a prestigious brand as Mercedes-Benz is of significance not only financially but also from the viewpoint of the prestige of our sport.

You have the first half of the season behind you. How did it go, from the point of view of the managing director of the biggest  association of organisers of Czech racing? Has it been exceptional in any way, or different from previous seasons?
I don’t think it’s moved away from the norm in any way. We’re trying to maintain the concept of race meeting days that has been tried and tested over the years.

What were the attendances like in the first half of the year, and how can they be compared with previous years?
We had expected somewhat bigger year-on-year growth in attendances, and we are currently analyzing what to do about it for the autumn part of the season.[Prague Velká Chuchle racecourse traditionally closes down from the end of June until the end of August].

This year, you opened a new restaurant in the grandstand at Velká Chuchle, and the space outside the entrance to the racecourse was smartened up. The history of the racecourse is illustrated on the wall outside the main entrance. Could you describe and quantify the investments that the racecourse has made this year, and are there any plans for the near future?
The biggest investment was certainly in the VISION Restaurant and Gallery, and in the facilities connected with this. We gradually have to repaint the structural elements of the grandstand. Since the flood in 2103, we’ve been getting quite low values when the pendometer is applied on the grass track. That’s due to the subsoil being carried away by the water pressure, and by the effect of the machinery that was used when the track was being prepared in a hurry after the flood. Unfortunately, the last two winters, which were practically frost-free, also haven’t helped us.We therefore want to concentrate on treatment measures that will get us back to the pre-flood levels.

In July there is going to be a non-traditional race meeting at Conseq Park (Velká Chuchle racecourse) – evening racing under the title Stock Exchange Race Day. It is non-traditional to hold races in the summer holiday period, when Velká Chuchle racecourse usually lies empty. Could you describe what this race day will be like, and how the idea of a link with the Prague Stock Exchange came about?
The idea occurred in the head of Jan Vedral, a member of the board of Turf Praha. He also started the negotiations. I think it will be a pleasant supplement to the summer part of the season.

In the autumn, you have another innovation - a richly-sponsored meeting for the European Jockeys’ Cup. How do you feel about it? Are these preparations something exceptional for you, or is this just another racing day, since the cup itself is being organised by someone else?
It certainly isn’t just another racing day. New events don’t come about by just saying Why don’t we do this or that. Far from it. Of course, Milan Kříž and Václav Luka jnr. also deserve our thanks for initiating this project and mainly for obtaining the necessary funds. We had to look for a way to fit the fixed date and the structure of the race conditions into our usual list of dates for meetings. Putting it like that, it’s just a single sentence. However, it was by no means easy to find a way to do it while keeping in mind our traditional advertising partners. I’m personally worried about the numbers of runners in top category races in the autumn and on that race day, and I’m also a bit nervous about the response of some owners to the way in which the riders will be nominated. Nevertheless, it is a very ambitious project, and, especially because of its rather unusual nature, there is a chance that it will arouse plenty of interest, even in the more mature horseracing countries abroad. There’s no other way we could afford to do this kind of thing in flat racing. We have very good and long-tem experience with the LYCIANO agency, which is covering the business and marketing side of the project. All aspects of the event will surely be interesting, and well organized both on their side and on ours.

There is a long-term trend in the world for racecourses to be multi-functional, especially the grandstands. It is uneconomical if they are used only for racing. Velká Chuchle racecourse, both because the grandstand was built in quite different times, and because the course functions as a training centre, has very limited possibilities in this direction. [The grandstand at Velká Chuchle was designed and constructed in the late 1980s.] Nevertheless, I want to ask what other events will be taking place at Velká Chuchle this year, and about any further uses for the grandstand at the course.
The limitations due to the fact that the racetrack must remain untouched, due to the training centre, and due to the internal structural arrangement of the grandstand, restrict our possibilities. And there is no shortage of such areas and stadiums in Prague. Practically all the free spaces inside the grandstand have been rented out, and every year we put on about fiften extra events. These are social events for companies, commercial film shoots, and sports events like Cycle for Life.

What troubles me is the absence of any kind of viable concept for trotting races in Prague. There probably won’t now be any this year. [Until a few years ago, there were about 20 trotting meetings a year at Velká Chuchle.] Trotting is an activity that logically belongs at the course, we are technically set up for it, and it is difficult to find a replacement for trotting. Soemthing fairly new is that a club of polo players has found a home here, and we’ll probably also invest in facilities for other equine activities.

This is your 14th year at the head of the association that organizes events at Velká Chuchle, and before that you managed Pardubice racecourse for a number of years. Are you still able to find enough motivation?
Racing is fundamentally a rather expensive sport, both for the direct participants, especially for the owners, and also for the organizers. As the organizer, we try to improve something each year, as concerns the equipment and the conditions for each entity – for racing operations, for racegoers, and for sponsors. Practically speaking, that is how we use all the funds that we obtain. It’s never been a business in the true sense of the word, and in our Czech conditions it surely never will be. At the moment, this is a difficult question for me, Nevertheless, there are plenty of things that I’d like to see through to an end in connection with the Velká Chuchle racecourse area.

Finance is always the alpha and the omega in horseracing operations all over the world. Generally speaking, obtaining funding is getting more and more complicated for most sports, if it is not provided from the public purse. In your opinion, where does racing stand, as a whole, and how do you see the the future of the funding of Czech horseracing? 
It’s a relatively small country, and a significant proportion of the population are on low incomes. The cards in sports marketing have already to a considerable extent been dealt out.  There is the emergence of sports in which people can themselves participate actively, and can also form a target group for products linked with the sport. Typical examples are cycling, skiing, marathon running, etc. Racing doesn’t have a supranational dimension, no worldwide marketing, no Olympic Games or world championships. These seem to be clearly negative factors, but we encounter them in a number of other sports in the Czech Republic, too. It’s more and more important to raise the attendance figures at the races. Classical PR no longer works, but there is no doubt potential for presenting racing and race meetings at all the courses, especially in the electronic media. Without good attendance figures, we’d have nothing to offer to advertising partners. As far as traditional sponsorship is concerned, horse racing will not be able continue in the future without the financial and negotiating commitment of horse owners. Every sport in the Czech Republic is to a considerable extent dependent on financial and lobbying support from its active fans and from former players. The ideal situation is when company marketing is linked with horseracing activities, as in the case of Elektrizace železnic Praha a.s., CK Martin Tour, and our general partner, Conseq. I think that is the way for us.

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