Despite the floods at the beginning of the month, which left Prague Velka Chuchle racecourse quite severely damaged, and also damaged Karlovy Vary racecourse, the Czech Derby took place on the originally-designated date at our third-choice racecourse. Congratulations to Petr Drahos and his TMM team, organizers of racing at Velka Chuchle, for putting the race on successfully at Most racecourse, 100 kilometres from Prague, while also dealing with the situation at Velka Chuchle.

The main Derby trial had been cancelled due to the floods, and none of 16 runners had ever run over a distance of more than 2 000 metres. In addition, the form that horses show at Most racecourse is notoriously different from their running at other courses. In spite of the problems, the race took place in quite good conditions. The extremely hot weather in the preceding week did not persist, and the race was run on good going and on a mild, slightly breezy afternoon, in front of a reasonably good crowd.

Bathyrhon and Rabbit Motivman made the pace. As they came into the final straight, an opening appeared for Mister Aviation, which took the lead. Two Thousand Guineas winner Talar then moved up alongside Mister Aviation inside the final 200 metres, and for a moment appeared to have the race won. However, Mister Aviation fought back, and/or Talar did not quite stay the distance. In a tight finish, Mister Aviation won by a head, and Czech-bred Taggerton came through to take third place, two and a half lengths behind. Beryaska came 4^th, and Rabbit Motivman held on for fifth place.

Irish-bred Mister Aviation is by Montjeu out of Gamra (Green Desert). Like the 2012 Derby winner, he is owned by Monte Negro and trained by Frantisek Holcak. This was Frantisek Holcak’s seventh Derby winner, breaking the record that he previously held jointly with Frantisek Vitek and Jaroslav Masek. Mister Aviation is the first gelding to win the Czech Derby (geldings have been allowed to run in the race for the last 4 or 5 years). Second-placed Talar is also a gelding.

Mister Aviation was ridden by 39-year-old Slovak jockey Jan Havlik, who rode for several years in Switzerland. He has now ridden the winner of the Austrian, Slovak and Czech Derby.

Mister Aviation started at 16:1. His stablemate Always on Sunday, in the same ownership, had started as one of the favourites. However, Kamil Pichal, who led Kadyny in last year, correctly chose to lead Mister Aviation this year. Kamil Pichal rode Ray of Light, trained by Holcak, to victory in the Derby in 1999 as a young jockey, but a racing injury brought his riding career to an end quite soon afterwards. The connections of Mister Aviation were in celebratory mood after the race.