A meeting called by Jockey Club president Jiří Charvát on March 11th failed to resolve the dispute between the organizers of horseracing and the Jockey Club of the Czech Republic.

The president continued to insist that the racecourses must not charge more than 3.5% of the prize money for a race for entering a horse and declaring it to run. The small racecourses that are offering meetings early in the season (Mimoň, Brno, and, it is thought, Kolesa) have accepted this this diktat, but all the other organizers have not.

However, all of the serious race meetings in April, and all the preparatory races for the Czech classics, are held at Prague Velká Chuchle. The main racecourse managers published their unofficial race conditions many weeks ago on www.dostihy.net, and the conditions for almost all races stated 5% of the prize money for entry+declaration.

There is no doubt that 5% is an exceptionally large amount, and it is understandable that owners want it reduced. Nevertheless, the show must go on! Racehorse owners have the option not to enter their horses if they do not like the conditions. They also have plenty of other ways to express their dissatisfaction. However, trainers, their staffs and jockeys need to begin the season. The fans wanted racing at Velká Chuchle on April 3^rd.

It seems to me that the president of the Jockey Club’s primary task is to ensure that racing takes place. It is unfortunate that he should at the same time be the leader of a minority - the owners, and not all of the owners - who have been involved in stopping the opening day of the racing season taking place.

The organizers of racing showed by posting their conditions on www.dostihy.net that they were ready to race in Prague on Sunday April 3^rd. It is probably not yet too late for the president to recognize the weakness of his position, to accept the race conditions that have already been published unofficially ((i.e. for race meetings until the end of July), and to mediate between the organizers and the owners’ representatives over race conditions as from the beginning of August 2016.