Four big owners have dominated Czech horseracing for the last decade, and have won almost one fifth of the prizemoney

 This article first appeared on the Fitmin & TURF Magazín Czech language website on May 30^th, 2023. Fitmin & TURF Magazín - Tuzemskému turfu poslední dekádu dominují 4 velké stáje. Získaly téměř pětinu všech cen. The author is Miloslav Vlček, editor of the Fitmin & TURF Magazín website and a leading writer on Czech horseracing. Miloslav Vlček is, in particular, an expert on racehorse breeding in the Czech Republic and in relation to the Czech Republic. Translated by Robin.

The dominance of leading Czech racehorse owners has been increasing. The overall number of owners has gradually been falling, and there has been a reduction in the number of horses in small and medium-size corporate and individual ownership, partnerships, syndicates, etc. However, the strength of the biggest owners has been growing. While reduced numbers of owners have not been registered everywhere in the world, in many countries there has been a movement in the numbers of horses and in the prizemoney that they have won, from small and medium-size ownership towards the biggest owners. This is very probably linked to the changes in economic relations, and is dependent on the gradual weakening of the middle class and the upper-middle class in the advanced countries and the increased concentration of capital in the hands of the biggest players.

 
In Czech racing, too, we have been able to observe a situation in which the biggest owners have been winning an ever-increasing share of the overall amount of prizemoney competed for at the Czech racecourses. We will consider here the period of the last ten years: from 2013 until now, just four of the biggest owners have won almost one fifth of all prizemoney. In that period of time, CZK 429,410,000 has been paid out in prizemoney, out of which the four biggest owners have taken as their cut CZK 80,569,340, or in percentage terms 18.76%.

This big proportion of the prizemoney reflects their success, and also the amount and the level of their commitment to Czech horseracing. With one exception, EŽ Praha a.s., which is in eighth place, these are the owners whose horses have run in the biggest number of races. However, the considerable number of races that their horses have run in is not so high as their share of the prizemoney. Out of the overall number of 41, 000 runners in the races here in the last ten years, the big four have had a total of 4,005 runners, i.e. 9.76%.

In the course of the last decade, too, there has a rising trend for us to observe. In the statistics for the results since 2018, the success rate of the big four owners in terms of prizemoney has risen to 19.79%, and the data since 2021 even shows that the share of the big four rose to 22.4%. In these parts of the last decade, too, dr. Charvát, Pegas and Lokotrans have continued to be in the top four, and the fourth place has been taken over by Dr Eva Nieslaniková. She has moved Rabbit Trhový Štěpánov, still the owner of horses that have run in the biggest number of races in the Czech Republic, down into fifth place. 

Since 2013, a total of 1090 owners have participated in racing in the Czech Republic, 112 of whom were registered abroad. More than one fifth of all owners, 220 to be exact, appeared here only once or twice. On an average, each owner had 37.6 runners and won 394,000 crowns. If we take out the horses registered to owners abroad, the average number of runners is 41.2, and the prizemoney is CZK 427,354. (miv)    

Most successful owners based on the amount of prizemoney won in Czech races since 2013