In recent days, the calendar of race meetings for the spring months at Prague Velka Chuchle racecourse was filled in. This means that there should not be any blank Sunday afternoons at Velka Chuchle this spring, as had been indicated in the originally proposed racing calendar. However, Petr Drahoš, manager of  TMM, the company organizing events at Peague Velka Chuchle, states that this did not come about as a result of some miraculous big sponsor being netted by the Prague racecourse…

“We made this decision mainly on the basis of interest in having the whole spring season covered, as has become traditional,” Drahos explains. “Our company made the decision on the assumption that we will be able to cover the other days, but no new strategic partner has appeared,” he adds, pointing out that the complicated financial situation for racing at Velka Chuchle is ongoing. “We have been able to sign some agreements in recent weeks, so we there is some growth available,” Drahos adds. However, there is still no definitive clarification of the approach of the state and the city to racing in Prague and throughout the country.

Translated from Dostihovy svet, Czech language pages.

Note: As reported earlier in these pages, racing has lost quite a lot of income in the last 18 months through changes to the law on betting and changes in funding distributed by the Ministry of Agriculture, quite apart from difficulties due to the economic crisis and due to other problems at Prague Velka Chuchle racecourse. It is hoped that there will be some support from the government and from the Capital City of Prague, but, as Petr Drahos points out, no announcement about this has yet been made.