The weather has again earned itself a leading position in the monthly Czech racing newsletter. The very long and cold winter delayed the beginning of the season in April. We had floods at the beginning of June that caused the Czech Derby to be moved from Prague Velka Chuchle to Most racecourse. In July, we had an extended period of dry and very hot weather, leading to problems of low water in the rivers less than two months after the floods. In response to the hot weather, the late July meeting at Pardubice was run in the morning, with the first race run at 8 a.m. Next Saturday, at the beginning of August, when hot weather is again forecast, the meeting at Lysa-nad-Labem has been moved to the evening, with the first race at 6 p.m. There have also been big local thunderstorms, some of the worst in recent days affecting the Liberec area of north central Bohemia, which has suffered repeatedly from local floods in recent years.

However, those of us whose homes and workplaces have remained unflooded, and who have not been training and riding horses in hot, dry conditions, can look back on some pleasant days of racing in July 2013. The first Saturday of the month, at Lysa nad Labem, was a nice warm day. The second Saturday was warm and dry up in the Moravian hills at Svetla Hora. The third Saturday was Oaks day at Most, with a pleasant breeze up on the hillside about the town. On the fourth Sunday, I missed the meeting at Pardubice, as I was still recovering from a slight heatstroke, and I watched the excellent coverage of the racing, on Sunday morning, on the sports channel of Czech TV.

Lysa is a 40-minute train ride from Prague, to the east. It is nowadays a thriving little racecourse and training centre. I regret the introduction of a little open ditch, a little Irish bank and one other non-standard obstacle, which means that the former classical steeplechase course can now host crosscountry races. I hope some good-class classical chases will be retained. My first trip to Svetla Hora, the  home  of  Zeleznik and Registana, Kolorado and Masini, and their trainer, Cestmir Olehla, has already been reported on in these pages. Josef Vana also spent years at Svetla Hora in the 1980s. I have now also begun to consider racing at Most both enjoyable and, thanks to the excellent new Student Agency bus service, quite accessible for me by public transport.

The TV coverage of the racing at Pardubice was a pleasure, with Marek Svacina as a competent and experienced commentator, Pavel Fucik doing the interviewing efficiently and pleasantly, and the camera team creating a work of art. This year, Libor Simunek has been the resident expert, and he is shaping up very well. Libor seems to have retired from riding – though he has had 49 winners over fences, and every Czech rider sets as one of his ambitions to ride 50 winners and get the title of “jockey” and the letter /ž/ beside his name in the racecard.

While we are talking about jockeys, well done Josef Sovka for riding three winners in the heat at Pardubice last Sunday. He is now in joint second place in the jockey’s championship. His riding career took off very slowly, but he is nowadays on every trainer’s rather short list of usable jumps jockeys. This season, there have been a number of low-category races – including all bumpers – that are open only for jumps riders who have not yet won 50 races. This seems to me a good idea that gives some opportunities to young men (and some women) who find it hard enough to gain much-needed racing experience. However, the top jockeys complain that they too have few enough opportunities to ride, and say they should not be penalized and denied their livelihood because they have worked hard and starved themselves to ride 50 winners. I do sympathize both with the less successful riders and with our top jockeys. They all deserve more!

Nobody, I imagine, thinks being a jumps jockey might be an easy and comfortable way to make a living. Two of our top jockeys, Josef Bartos (ribs) and Jaroslav Myska (elbow) were both hurt in mid June, on the same day, at Merano, and they both came back with a winner at Kolesa on July 21^st. However, both of them were still in discomfort at Pardubice a week later. Myska decided to limit himself, at Pardubice on July 28^th, to riding only in three of the races, for Stepanka Sedlackova, his partner. Bartos had what looked to this televiewer like a minor fall in the first race, but for a man with extremely sore ribs it was clearly very painful.  He tried to ride in the second race, but had to pull his horse up, and then missed the rest of the day’s racing. In the main event, there was a nasty incident in which Jan Kratochvil, one of our up-and-coming young jumps riders, who is based in Josef Vana’s yard, was left lying in the middle of the track, apparently with an injured back. He was later taken to hospital on a stretcher - I hope he is OK.

The main races in July were won by outsiders. Saltanat won the Oaks quite well. She is owned by Kazakh film director Ardak Amirkulov, who has owned outstanding horses before, above all Shamalgan and Darsalam, the two best Czech-trained flat racers of all time. His horses used to be trained by Arslangirej Savujev, but are now with Artur Resulov (who used to work for Savujev). This was only Resulov’s third winner in three years as a trainer, and by far the biggest. No wonder he and all the horse’s connections were overjoyed.

A month ago, I mentioned that Czech-based Kazakh rider Bauyrzhan Murzabayev had led the flat jockeys’ championship until the end of June. Strictly speaking, however, he was overtaken right at the end of the month, and he has now not had a winner for about 5 weeks. He is left in fourth position, with Jan Verner now leading from Jaromir Safar and Petr Foret. All four are still young and – we hope – still on the way up. Jan Verner was a top apprentice not long ago. He rides for the Rabbit Trhovy Stepanov stable, which is having a good season, though mainly in smaller races, and for trainer Allan Petrlik. The Rabbit horses have tended to set the pace this season, and Jan Verner has won several of his races without being headed.

There can be little doubt that the media has changed radically in recent years, and the same is true for the Czech horseracing media. Television coverage has changed least, but it is now easy to download video coverage. For example, you can watch Soros come from behind to win the second leg of the Josef Vana Summer Cup here: http://www.ceskatelevize.cz/sport/ostatni/dostihy/236181-v-dostihovem-poharu-josefa-vani-finisoval-nejrychleji-soros/

Printed magazines have dropped out, and have been replaced by several websites that are frequently updated. Nobody, I think, has worked out how to make a website profitable – but at least a website should not lose much money, the way the printed magazines used to. The printed Paddock Revue magazine (and its associated website) died about a year ago, and was immediately replaced by the Dostihovy Svet website, with essentially the same team of writers. I am not sure whether Turf still appears in printed form – I think not. However, the renewed Fitmin Turf webpages complement Dostihovy Svet very well, and we reckon to cooperate rather than compete with the Fitmin Turf team http://dostihy.fitmin.cz/. I am told that Dostihovy Svet has less cordial relations with Galopp Reporter http://www.galopp-reporter.cz/. Galopp Reporter first appeared in 2010 as  Maentiva Galopp Reporter in 2010. It still appears in printed form and is distributed free-of-charge at the racecourses.

There have always been people who would love to make a good living out of being a racehorse photographer. A few people were able to do this in the past, when photography was difficult and good cameras, films and printing were expensive. Printed newspapers and magazines were willing to pay for photographs. Nowadays there are numerous people with high-quality digital cameras at every race meeting, and they display their photographs in the picture galleries of Dostihovy Svet and the other web sites. Dostihovy Svet editor Petr Guth is nowadays our leading  horseracing photographer. However, he has plenty of competition, from Lenka Lojova on Dostihovy Svet, and also from all the other websites. We have to admit that Petr Malik and others on Galopp Reporter display photo galleries that are well worth looking at.

Petr Guth’s pictures of the morning races at Pardubice: https://www.flickr.com/photos/27889831@N05/sets/72157634858271790/show

Splendid Slovak ladies in fine hats, Slovak Derby day at Bratislava. Petr Guth’s pictures: http://www.flickr.com/photos/27889831@N05/sets/72157634786817688/show

While idly looking through the English pages of Dostihovy Svet, I made a serendipitous discovery that you probably made long ago. You may remember a picture of Josef Vana on the front cover of European Trainer magazine: http://www.dostihovy-svet.cz/en/node/894. Well, I idly clicked on to Josef Vana’s nose, in the picture, that is, and was amazed to find that I could read the whole issue of European Trainer online, including the arcticle about Josef Vana, written by Petr Guth. I am pretty sure nothing better about Josef Vana has ever been published in English language. I recommend you to click on to Josef Vana’s nose, or any other part of his anatomy, and read this article.

Czech racing will continue for several more weeks without its central racecourses, Prague Velka Chuchle and Pardubice. The serious stuff will resume on August 24^th, when the third of the four Velka Pardubicka qualification races is the main event. A week later, the third of the three Josef Vana Summer Steeplechase Series of classical steeplechases will be run. The Czech St Leger has been moved back a week to Sunday, September 1^st. It is not a sure thing that the racecourse will be ready. Parts of the track still (seem to me to) have a lot of recovering to do. The weekend after that, September 7^th and 8^th, the revived Wielka Wroclawska meeting will be held at Wroclaw. A lot of Czech-trained horses were entered for the two main steeplechases, and I hope there will be a strong Czech contingent in Wroclaw.

Let us hope the weather in Central Europe will stop swinging from extreme to extreme, and that the present heatwave will soon be replaced by mild sunny days and cool nights with steady, gentle rain. When I next write a newsletter, I hope to be able to report that the efforts to restore racing at Prague Velka Chuchle have been successful, and that we will be able to look forward to an autumn series of regular Sunday afternoon meeting there.