The main incident in Czech racing in November 2015 was no doubt that the Velka Pardubicka winner, Nikas, and two other horses tested positive for banned substances (caffeine and thiobromine) at the Velka Pardubicka meeting. The situation is that the B samples are now being analysed. It seems unlikely that the original findings were incorrect, and the key question is not whether the three horses had these substances in their body fluids, but how they got there. As the matter is sub judice, and is very sensitive, and involves people inside our small racing community, I do not want to write much about it here. The cleanness of Czech racing is of great importance to our owners and trainers, in particular. Why would they invest so much money and so much effort if the sport were tainted?

The affair has been a big shock and sadness to the racing community, but for the media and for the general public it has just been a bit of titillation. Their knowledge of steeplechasing comes mainly from the excellent translations of widely-read novels by Dick Francis and his imitators, in which winners are routinely doped, and in which a young rider, in the end, exposes the guilty and saves the reputation of the innocent. Let us hope something like that happens here.

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Almost two years ago, there was a hostile takeover of the leading organs of the Jockey Club of the Czech Republic by a group headed by leading owners, with support from leading trainers. Václav Luka, snr was replaced after 17 years as president of the Czech Jockey Club. After a brief interregnum, Dr Jiří Charvát took over as president.

The Luka years were a time in which our racing was stabilized and regularized after several very uncertain years following the political changes in November 1989. The Luka régime at the Jockey Club emphasized steadiness and stability, and regarded small trainers, breeders and owners as the bedrock of Czech racing. The new régime considers that those who pump most money into racing, and the (foreign-bred) horses that they have invested in, deserve particular consideration.

Most of the people closest to Václav Luka, snr for those 17 years have been marginalized over the last two years. A lot of experience has been lost or thrown away. Too often, people who did good-quality work for many years have been replaced, continuity has been lost, and their work and even their integrity have not always been respected. Of course, not everybody did a great job, and some had grown old. Nevertheless, it is sad if people who tried their best for Czech racing over a period of many years feel undervalued now, and have not received any adequate acknowledgement. Even if the new people wanted to move the old people on, it should have been done sensitively. It would have done no harm to treat the old people with respect. The present leaders will hope to be treated that way when they are sooner or later moved on.

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An interesting interview with Dr Jan Schulmann appeared recently on the Fitmin-Turf web pages http://dostihy.fitmin.cz/domaci-dostihove-deni/s-janem-schulmannem-o-uplynule-sezone-propozicich-a-hledani-reseni-soucasnych-problemu.html. This interview can be read in conjunction with another article, written by Dr Schulmann, which appeared on the Fitmin-Turf web pages in March 2015 http://dostihy.fitmin.cz/domaci-dostihove-deni/komentar-z-jineho-uhlu-pohledu.html. The interview with Dr Schulmann was made by Miloslav Vlček.

Dr Schulmann has for many years been the chairman of the flat racing committee of the Jockey Club of the Czech Republic, and has always been outspoken when he disagrees with what is going on. He points out that he has worked to provide as well-balanced a programme of races as possible for the season and, at the same time, to promote the interests of Czech breeders - through promoting Category I handicaps (which give Czech-breds a better chance of winning a prestigious race), races for fillies (which encourage owners to buy good fillies), and owner’s prizes (special bonuses for more or less good performances by Czech-bred horses). He complains that the Jockey Club has never had enough control over the programme of races that are offered, and has had even less control these last two years. Generous sponsors, and also racecourse managers, now have too much freedom to put on the races that they want, and this has meant that his committee is excessively limited in its ability to offer a good and balanced programme.

In the interview, Dr Schulman points out the main problems of providing a good range of races for all horses, given that we have just two race meetings per week and a short, seven-month season.

In the last 10 years, we have lost 10-11 race days at the Category A racecourses. That is, taking into account a few mixed meetings, about 50 flat races, and this can scarcely be balanced by increasing the number of races at the Category B and C courses. In 2004, according to Jockey Club statistics, 377 flat races were run, and in 2015 the number was 335. At first sight, this does not appear to be tragic, though a 10% drop would worry any proper manager.

However, a closer analysis reveals a much more serious problem, because a comparison of the figures for the number of race days in 2004 and the number of race days in 2015 at the Category A racecourses reveals: Prague Velká Chuchle 22/20; Karlovy Vary 9/6; Most 9/5; Pardubice 2/0. As regards the number of races held at these courses, the comparative fugures are (2004 against 2015): Prague Velká Chuchle 172/150; Karlovy Vary 61/42; Most 63/36; Pardubice 14/3. The percentage loss of racing days and also of lost races at the Category A racecourses is therefore about 25%, which should worry even the most blasé manager. The real problem is that only the overall figures are presented to the Council of the Jockey Club, together with an assurance that the situation is more or less stable, due to the lack of a more professional analysis.

To these figures, we must add the impact of money-saving measures by individual racecourses that have gradually been introduced since 2008. Some races have disapppeared altogether, and several others have been reduced to a lower category. As a result of all this, the well-conceived series of races over certain distances have collapsed, the old Category I handicaps and races for fillies have gone, as have a number of Category II and Category III races. There are now reasonable opportunities for the upper half of Category I horses to fulfil their potential, and also for Category IV handicappers. For all other horses, in certain parts of the season, it is extremely difficult to find suitable races. The months of July and August [when both Prague Velká Chuchle and Pardubice close down for a period of almost two months] are a catastrophe, and the new Jockey Club leadership has done nothing about it for two years. We see what basic changes have been made in the racing calendar and in the race conditions for some major races in the UK, Ireland and France, and it is hard to understand why it is almost impossible to move the date of a meeting at a Category C racecourse by one week, not to mention the Category A racecourses.

The core of the problem is that the Jockey Club does not take on a leading and coordinating function in setting up the racing calendar. Apart from exceptional cases, it has to accept the organizers’ proposals, because there is no adequate financial lever for exerting its authority and enforcing its views. In discussions about the calendar, the Flat racing committee’s repeated proposals to rationalize the use of the current number of race days and to span the gaps in the summer have been turned down by the racecourses. It is laughable that, for example, the key organizer, Prague Velká Chuchle racecourse, has not been participating in the discussions about the racing calendar because it does not know when Czech television will find time in its schedule for the Czech Derby. Something about avoiding a clash with the football [the European Nations Cup finals will be running at the end of June 2016]. In 2016 there is going to be a further drop in the number of racing days at Most, and it is only thanks to the cooperative reaction of Karlovy Vary racecourse that there will be no fundamental problem with the Oaks. By the way, Karlovy Vary is the only Category A course that will next year be raising its number of meetings, to seven.

The proposed calendar shows a reduced number of race days at Lysá and at Slušovice. However, the most painful situation is at the Category A courses, which need to be concentrated on. There is no point giving financial support to peripheral courses where almost noone is interested in running their horses (Mimoň), which cannot provide a sufficiently safe racetrack (Benešov), or to give extra money because some bigwigs are supposed to be coming to the course (Slušovice).

I think it was very unfortunate in this situation to have decided to reduce the cost of entry + declaration to run to 3.5% of the prize money [in recent years, entry + declaration has cost 5%], because the Jockey Club has not offered the racecourses any alternative source of funding, and has in this way failed to strengthen its own negotiating position. The probable outcome will be a further reduction in the number of race days, and any attempt to improve the structure of the race conditions will be in vain. In other words, this 1.5% saving will in effect be counterproductive for the owners. Yes, if you give the racecourses your finger they will bite off your whole arm, and the 50% share of the prize money contributed by the owners in 2014 is monstrous. However, if there is no sufficiently strong alternative source of funding in the hands of the Jockey Club, it is impossible to get the necessary level of control over the racing calendar and over the structure of the race conditions.

The changes at the Czech Jockey Club almost two years ago were instigated by leading owners and leading trainers who wanted to strengthen their own status, and lead Czech racing into a new era led by top horses and top owners. The racing calendar has been improved for our top horses, mainly thanks to prize money contributed by the companies of the leading owners themselves. Elsewhere in the long and wide-ranging interview quoted from above, Dr Schulmann praised the Jockey Club’s successful efforts to bring in Mercedes AG as a major partner of the Jockey Club, and the extraordinary effort, financially supported by LERAM, to put on the very successful European Jockeys Cup meeting at Prague Velká Chuchle in September. However, he added, quite rightly, that the major last-minute moves in the racing calendar to accommodate the European Jockeys Cup in September threw the whole planning for the major flat races in the autumn up into the air, and was damaging for the reputation and the continuity of our traditional, well-established autumn festival meeting. This contains two well-established races, over the distances of the Guineas and the Derby, in which our top 3-y-os traditionally take on the older horses for the first time, after the classics. At the same time, the decision by Pardubice racecourse to drop what used to be a major flat race meeting on the day before the Velka Pardubicka, and replace it by a mixed meeting with very poor flat races, left a gap in the flat racing calendar in the second week in October which would have been the ideal date for the European Jockeys Cup.

***

In the 1990s, November still used to be the first month of winter here in Prague, with periods of heavy frosts. In the 2010s, November has been pleasantly autumnal and mild, quite a good time to visit the city.

November 2015 was a very mild month. Until about November 20^th, the daytime temperatures were pleasantly warm. After that, the days became chillier, but racing would have been possible on every Saturday and Sunday throughout the month. In fact, as I finish this off on December 3^rd, the forecast is for weather that would be very pleasant for horse racing at the weekend.

Once again, racing fans have been asking, Why was the last meeting of the season at Pardubice held on October 24^th, and at Prague Velká Chuchle on October 25^th? These two courses, with plenty of shelter available for spectators, are the best-equipped Czech racecourses for November racing. However, our last three meetings of the season were held at Slušovice, Benešov and Kolesa. Each of thesecourses was rewarded with a big crowd that enjoyed a mild afternoon and beautiful autumn colours. This year, the pleasant days at the end of October and at the beginning of November all attracted excellent crowds. Velká Chuchle had its best crowd of the autumn at its final meeting on October 25th, for a race day that featured the Josef Váňa Velká Národní steeplechase and the President of the Republic Stakes. At Dresden, which is 150 km north of Prague and has a November climate very similar to ours, a race meeting was held as late as November 17th.

Why are Prague Velká Chuchle and Pardubice so impatient to pack up for the winter? The racecourse managers point out that it is hard enough to find sponsors for the number of meetings that they already offer, and seeking sponsors for 3 or 4 more racing days would be a headache. There is a risk that the meetings would attract small crowds, or would have to be cancelled at the last moment, due to frost or waterlogging. And to tell the truth, there have been plenty of mild but dark, gloomy and unattractive weekend afternoons this November.

As as far as Velká Chuchle is concerned, the organizers have already put on a show on 21 Sunday afternoons by the end of October, and they may well prefer the idea of spending overcast November Sundays in front of the fire at home, rather than getting muddy shoes and cold hands organizing a poorly attended afternoon at the racecourse.

The Jockey Club announced in November that it is setting up an organization to organize races and race days. It is clear that the racecourses themselves are reluctant to organize more race days than they do now. Why should not other organizers set themselves up more systematically than hitherto to collect sponsors and hire a racecourse to put on the extra race days that we need, and perhaps the types of races that Dr Schulmann has identified a need for?

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The Czech horseracing gala evening will be held in Prague, at the Národní dům na Vinohradech  http://www.dostihy.cz/xxi-galavecer-ceskeho-turfu/ on January 30th. Tickets are already on sale. For several years recently, the gala evening was held in the splendid Národní dům in Prostějov. This year, an Evening for Friends of Horseracing is to be organized there on January 23rd. Details are given on http://www.dostihyslusovice.cz/prostejov-2016/informace/. Tickets are on sale, as are very reasonably-priced good-quality rooms at the famous Prostějov tennis club, where most of the present crop of Czech tennis stars learned the game.

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On December 4th, the Jockey Club issued a press release rebutting accusations made by Dr Jan Schulmann in the interview extensively quote here.The rebuttal concerned claims about the handling of the Slušovice Affair, in which two of our top jockeys weighed in incorrectly after separate races. The Slušovice Affair has been dealt with elsewhere on these pages. The Jockey Club press release did not concern the part of the interview with Dr Schulmann that is quoted and discussed in this newsletter.