In June 2013, the main issue has been the weather, the floods, and their impact on the Czech Derby. In my newsletter at the end of May, I wrote that it had been a bit wet, and that the sensationalist press was saying that the crop of hops, in Bohemia, and the crop of grapes, mainly in Moravia, were under threat. In the light of what has happened in the last month, I will in future try to take the threat of natural calamities more seriously. I am sad to report that some Bohemian hopfields have indeed been written off for this year.

Even before the end of May, ‘a bit wet’ turned into 100 hours of unbroken steady rain, which seemed likely to go on for ever. This rain fell at best on water-saturated soil, and in many cases on very well-drained roofs, sidewalks and roadways, and found its way rapidly into the rising rivers. In most places there really was not a fantastic amount of rain. It is worrisome that these 20-year floods (only locally 50-year floods) caused so much damage to homes and businesses built in the flood plain, and even to poorly-located chemical plants and water treatment plants. There was much less water than in 2002, which was a 200-year flood in many places.

This fairly normal flood was enough to cover the entire Prague Velka Chuchle racecourse area in muddy water. The racecourse is adjacent to the Vltava, upstream from Prague, and is designated as an emergency reservoir. As in 2002, the problem was not so much with the Vltava, which is more or less well-regulated for a 20-year flood, but above all with the Berounka, which flows into the Vltava a couple of kilometers upstream (south) from the racecourse. The Berounka is a major tributary coming from the west, via Plzen (Pilsen). The communities along the Berounka have raised their embankments and speeded up their discharges into the river since 2002, but no retention reservoirs have been constructed.

The Czech prime minister, whose government has since lost power in yet another episode in the tragicomedy of Czech politics, flew over the floods and declared in a Churchillian voice that everything would be rebuilt. Not that, this time, reservoirs - and not houses and chemical plants - will be constructed on the edges of the flood plain.

The water has retreated from Velka Chuchle, leaving behind plenty of mud. TMM, managers of events at Velka Chuchle racecourse, find themselves clearing up an awful mess for the second time within 11 years.

As soon as the rains ended, we had a period of 5 very hot days, which provoked major thunderstorms. These were followed by some very steady rainfall, worryingly reminiscent of the calamitous rains earlier in the month. The weather forecast warned of days of rain ahead, and television showed scenes of local floods, a few of which were even in the very places that had been flooded a couple of weeks earlier. Fortunately, the longer term forecast was not correct, and the threat has now receded - until the next time.         

The flooding at Velka Chuchle racecourse begins and ends in the lowest-lying part of the course, which is at the far end of the back straight, between the 1 800 metre mark and the 1 600 metre mark. As far as reopening the course for the St Leger meeting at the end of August is concerned, this low-lying stretch seems to be the main problem. It was under water for a long time, and I understand it was damaged by someone driving a vehicle over it, possibly an idiot. In any event, the target is to have the course ready for Sunday, August 25^th.    

Velka Chuchle was not the only racecourse affected by high water. Karlovy Vary was unraceable for a while, and now we hear that the meeting at Benesov, scheduled for Sunday July 14^th, has been postponed for four weeks. Benesov is very low-lying and boggy, and waterlogging is nothing extraordinary there.

The Czech Derby was rearranged at short notice, and was run at Most racecourse. Most is not ideal for a championship race, but the weather was fine, the course was in good order, and the race day went off well. The race was won by Irish-bred Mister Aviation, owned by Monte Negro, trained by Frantisek Holcak and ridden by Slovak jockey Jan Havlik. The meeting at Most was organized by TMM, the Velka Chuchle organizers. I think it was a fine effort by them to hold a good Derby day at Most at short notice in spite of their problems at their own racecourse.  

The crowd at Most was modest, even taking into account the location (90 km north-west of Prague). This has been a season of modest crowds. April was chilly, and there were small crowds in Prague. In June there was no racing at Velka Chuchle. The meetings at Lysa nad Labem and at Pardubice attracted poor crowds. The two Friday evening meetings at Pardubice were very sparsely attended. I hope that evening meetings in June will not be abandoned. However, if they are to work at Pardubice, it will be necessary to offer more than just three bumpers and a couple of Category IV hurdles races.

I like to mention our jockeys in these newsletters. Many readers (a large proportion of the small number of readers, that is to say) will be pleased to hear about Jan Faltejsek doing really well. At the recent meeting at Pardubice, he first rode Orphee des Blins to an extremely impressive win and then, in the next race, won very easily and well on Trezor in the Velka Pardubicka qualification race. Jan has ridden 19 winners in France in 2013, and top trainer Guillaume Macaire has been putting him up on favourites. Other good news is that some new jumps riders are coming through in the Czech Republic. For example, Jakub Kocman, who like Jan Faltejsek worked for George Charlton in the north of English, has been achieving some solid results. The bad news about our jumps jockeys is that Josef Bartos and Jaroslav Myska both suffered fractures on the same afternoon at Merano in mid June, and both will be out for a month at the very least.

I realize that I have scarcely mentioned the name Bauyrzhan Murzabayev on this website until now, and I am only now learning how to spell his name. This is to my shame, as Dostihovy Svet is supposed to be an internationally-oriented site. Murzabayev is a Kazakh rider who first appeared here in 2009, but did not ride in races. When he first came here, he worked for Arslangirej Savujev. Last year, he returned here and started riding in races at the end of May. He rode initially for the Czech-based Russian trainers: Igor Endaltsev, Artur Resulov and Arslangirej Savujev, and then quite soon he was picked up by other trainers based in and around Mimon. This year he has been called upon by many trainers looking for a competent rider able to do 53 kg and able to claim a 1,5 kg allowance. He now not only sits on top of the flat jockeys’ championship at the end of June, but has also had more rides than anyone else. I read that trainer Zdeno Koplik is his agent. Well done, Bauyrzhan. I will make sure that we follow you more closely in future.

Sports rules throw up all kinds of questions of interpretation, and we had one this month in Czech steeplechasing. The question is, What is “odboceni”? The rules for qualifying for the Velka Pardubicka state that the horse must complete the course of at least one race from a list of qualification races, without falling or unseating his rider and without “odboceni”. This is translated as “turning aside”, and it refers to running out and refusing. The question is, if three backmarkers are approaching the Popkovice Turn and a loose horse runs right across them just as they are approaching the fence, are they allowed to turn back and attempt the fence again? In the June qualification race this is what happened to Lingarry, Ronino and Frasini. They have been officially given as finishers – but what if there were to be more than 25 declared runners on October 13^th, and the owner of an excluded horse appealed at the last minute against the qualification of these horses. An official declaration that they are considered to have fulfilled the qualification requirements might be a good thing. In addition, it is quite usual for horses not to take the Irish Bank entirely in one go and without hesitation: what amount of hesitation would be considered as “odboceni”?

I am sitting in Prague writing this on Sunday June 30^th, on the day when the first race in the Josef Vana Summer Series is being run at Karlovy Vary. This series of three classical steeplechases, to be run at Karlovy Vary, Pardubice and Most, each for a prize of one million Czech crowns (EUR 40 000) is an interesting new venture, and has attracted an international field, with runners from Italy, Germany and Slovakia. Josef Vana is sending out six horses for this race on his local track, and he has been fully involved in promoting the race, which he clearly wants to win – and also take the prize money for finishing 2^nd, 3^rd, 4^th and 5^th.

Some Czech racing people deplore the kind of wimpy steeplechase where the horses run on grass around the outside of the field and jump a very limited range of fences, and consider crosscountry chasing far superior. They regret that even Pardubice racecourse has become a test of speed rather than of intrepid jumping. Others consider crosscountry oldfashioned and too dangerous and, for example, regret the introduction of an Irish Bank and an open water jump this year at Lysa, where classical steeplechases used to be run on grass over a series of very straightforward hedges. This latter group particularly welcomes the Josef Vana Summer Series.

I am sure there will be things to write about in the newsletter at the end of July. Mainly good news, I hope.