The exciting finish to the second fastest Czech St Leger in history turned to shocked silence as the winner, Grace of Gracie, suffered a broken leg a few strides after crossing the finishing line. Celebrating jockey Jiří Palík fell to the ground, and remained there for quite a while before getting up and walking away apparently only shaken, while the horse continued on three legs, clearly having suffered a disastrous injury. French-bred Grace of Gracie, by Zanzibari (USA) out of -Gold Harvest (FR) (Kaldounevees (FR)) won by 1 length, ahead of the favourite, Gontchar, which had won the Czech Derby, with Golden Devil in third place. Grace of Gracie was owned by BORS Breclav, a.s., was trained by Lenka Horáková, and was ridden by veteran jockey Jiří Palík, who returned to the Czech Republic at the beginning of last year after a career riding successfully abroad.

The race was run on good to firm ground at Prague Velká Chuchle. This year, Derby day and St Leger day were just about the two hottest days of the summer, well over 30° Celsius. The early pace was set by Tialine, in the same ownership as second favourite Timekeeper, which had won the Slovak Derby in July. Quite soon, however, Gontchar’s pacemaker, Ivan le Terrible, took over. Gontchar and Grace of Gracie fought out a hard finish, with Grace of Gracie winning on merit.

After the St Leger, there was one more race, the 2^nd running of the Agrofert Velká Národní Steeplechase for the Josef Váňa Cup. With prize money of one million Czech crowns, this is the biggest classical steeplechase race of the Czech season. Hot favourite Fafintadenient led all the way round, but was caught and overtaken in the last 100 metres by Anaking, running his first race in the Czech Republic. French-bred 6-y-o Anaking, by Astarabad, has a good record in France. He was bought recently bought by Jiří Charvát, and must have good prospects here.He is trained by Štěpánka Myšková, and was ridden by Jaroslav Myška, who had ridden Fafintadenient to victory in the first running of this race, in 2015.

Next Sunday, there will again be good racing at Prague Velká Chuchle. The main races will be the 38^th running of the Martin Tour Travel Agency Prague Grand Prix, over 1600 metres, and the 38^th running of the CONSEQ Czech Horseracing Grand Prix, over 2 400 metres. These are the traditional post classic races in which the best of the 3-y-os meet the best of the older horses. These races have been brought forward a few weeks to create a space for the European Jockeys Cup meeting, which will be run at Prague Velká Chuchle on Saturday, September 24^th. The mile race, in particular, has attracted a number of strong entries.