The Czech horseracing season will begin this weekend, at Mimoň on Saturday and at Prague Velká Chuchle on Sunday. Agreements have now been signed between the Jockey Club of the Czech Republic and all the racecourses, and no further cancellations are expected.

As a steeplechase rider and as a trainer, Martina Růžičková has given everything for her horses and for horse racing. She expressed her opinion on the delayed start to the Czech horseracing season in the course of an interview with Michaela Zemanová, published on the Fitmin Turf webpages.

The situation completely knocked me down on to my knees, and took away my taste for my work. I didn’t even feel like opening the race conditions, which is something I have looked forward to every spring for 25 years. How is it possible that horse racing people have been playing tricks on horse racing people, instead of everyone pulling on the same rope? We’re all sailing in a leaky boat, and yet we start fighting with each other... This is a lesson for us, and we can never let this happen again. The present committee needs to be changed, so that its members are people for whom racing is a passion, and not people who want to fulfill some ambition or to issue orders. We trainers, riders and grooms sacrifice everything for this beautiful sport. We don’t have free time, we don’t go away on holiday, and our families pay for the fact that we were born to be horseracing people. We endure all the hardships because we are doing a job that we all love. It is unethical to misuse us! People in leadership positions should take that into account and act accordingly, and not take racing away from us.