The second of the four Velka Pardubicka qualification races at Pardubice was run on Sunday, June 23^rd. As in the first qualification race, the field was rather small, but the quality was fine.

The Czech Derby was run at Prague Velká Chuchle racecourse on Saturday 22 June, which was a mild, rainy day

The government of the Czech Republic announced on June 10^th that it supports a proposal of the Ministry of Agriculture to provide five million Czech crowns (almost EUR 200 000) in support of the Velka Pardu

The 81 entries for this year’s Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe at Longchamp include 5-y-o Nagano Gold, owned by V3J and trained at Bošovice by Václav Luka (photo). British-bred Nagano Gold, by Sixties Icon (GB), out of Never Enough (GB) (Monsun (GER)), has a decent record.

Velká Chuchle racecourse has held its first official showjumping event. The newly-constructed arena welcomed riders from the Prague region, with a total of over 550 participants in the course of the weekend (May 3rd-5th). There was total prizemoney of 176 000 crowns (EUR 6 900).

The 2019 horseracing season, celebrating the 100th anniversary of the Czechoslovak Jockey Club,  is under way in the Czech Republic. The Easter weekend looks promising. The forecast is for sunny, mild days, and there will be three race meetings.

TOTO CZ, a.s., the association that runs the betting offices in the Czech horseracing environment under the trading name BETINO, is still waiting for a new licence to accept bets, despite submitting an application in due time.

February 2019 was a very mild month in the Czech Republic, with many bright sunny days. However, clear skies brought a good number of frosty nights and early mornings. I am told that there was still quite good skiing and plenty of snow at the end of February at elevations of 700 metres or more - many of our trainers are based in the highlands. However, here in Prague we have had little snow and little ice, thank goodness, all winter, and February was a dry month.