We sadly report the death, a week before Christmas, of Vladislav Snitkovskij, at the age of just

 In the first outing of Czech-trained horses in 2016, Greg Wroblewski’s charges finished 2^nd and 5^th in Dortmund. The trainer can give a positive rating to his attack on the German all-weather track, even though he did not have a winner. And now he can hatch plans to take horses again to a racetrack that had been spurned by Czech horses for many years.

Bauyrzhan Murzabayev, born in Kazakhstan, has completed his fourth season riding at Czech racecourses, and has won the Czech flat jockeys’ championship for the third time.

The Italian jumps season closed a few days ago with a meeting at Grosseto. The last race was won, symbolically, by Josef Bartoš, who in this way underlined his victory in the Italian jockeys championship over fences, with a total of 59 wins within one year.

The death throes of Austrian horse racing are ongoing, but clinical death has been put back again. Indeed, it even seems that better times may be coming along. The AROC web pages state that the 148th running of the Austrian Derby will take place at Ebreichsdorf in 2016, and also seven other meetings there, in which flat races will supplement the trotting races. The dates and race conditions should be announced from Austria within the next few days. ***Translated from the Czech language pages of Dostihový svět.

Josef Váňa junior did not manage to defend his title as Czech champion jockey over fences, and was not able to repeat his win in the Gran Premio at Merano, but he gives a positive assessment of 2015. And why not, since he also played his part in the Váňa yard’s success with its three-year-olds on the flat, led by Derby wi

Josef Váňa snr has recently aroused considerable speculation about whether he is going to ride in the 2016 Velka Pardubicka. He has hinted to the popular press that Rabbit Hawk Wing might be a suitable partner for him.

To prevent the publication of the Czech General Handicap (GH) arousing great amazement, we would like to inform trainers, owners and the horseracing public in advance about the harmonization of the Czech handicap with the German handicap (GAG).

The Czech horseracing gala evening will be held in Prague, at the Národní dům na Vinohradech  http://www.dostihy.cz/xxi-galavecer-ceskeho-turfu/

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.