March 2016 was no doubt a bad month for Czech horseracing. The first two race meetings of the season, due to take place on April 3^rd and April 10^th, were cancelled because of the lack of an agreement on race conditions between the racecourses and the Jockey Club of the Czech Republic.

The presidium of the Jockey Club of the Czech Republic has decided to sign an Agreement to provide horseracing with each of the racecourses, with the following levels of payments by owners for entry+declaration to run: Brno, Kolesa, Mimoň, Netolice - 3.5%, Karlovy Vary, Most  - 4.25%, Lysá,

The Jockey Club of the Czech Republic has obtained a new sponsor for this year for the Flat Riders’ Championship. Lázně Poděbrady a.s., in collaboration with the Jockey Club of the Czech Republic, announces LÁZNĚ PODĚBRADY CUP 2016, the first year of the official championship awards.

The economic crisis, together with the problem of overproduction of thoroughbreds in some European countries, significantly impacted the prices that racehorses reached at auction. In the last few years, however, we have witnessed quite a sharp rise in prices.

TMM, organizers of events at Prague Velká Chuchle racecourse, have issued the following statement.

A comment on the Galopp Reporter website expresses what many of us think about the stand-off between the Jockey Club and the organizers of race meetings in the Czech Republic, and about the cancellation of the first day of the 2016 horseracing season.

The European Jockeys Cup meeting web pages carry the laconic statement:

On Friday March 11th, at 9 o’clock, talks were held in the grandstand at Prague Velká Chuchle racecourse [

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.

Can it really as much as a month since I last wrote a newsletter? No, not really. The fact is that February is a short month, and I did not write the February newsletter until about the 5^th day of the month. Not much more than three weeks ago.