The meetings at Pardubice on Saturday, first race at 12.00, and at Prague Velka Chuchle on Sunday, first race at 12.15, will bring the Czech racing season to an end.

Two jockeys, one over jumps and one on the flat, have a good chance of winning the jockeys' championship for the first time. Marcel Novak has ridden 13 winners this season, like Jaroslav Myska, but Novak leads on second places. Marcel Novak is not our most gifted jockey, but he is notably tough and determined in a country where jumps jockeys are tough and determined, and has worked very hard to be placed to win the title. Marek Stromsky or Josef Bartos could win the championship, too, but both would need to ride three more winners than either Novak or Myska.

2011 flat jockeys' champion Jaromir Safar and Petr Foret have both ridden 32 winners, but Safar has more second places. Veteran Jan Raja is only two behind, and has ridden more second places than either Safar or Foret.

Our top jockeys do not fight single-mindedly for the jockeys' championship, most of them preferring to ride partly in the Czech Republic and partly in Italy (jumps) or in Slovakia and elsewhere (flat), and to compete for better prize money in big races there. This weekend, though, there will be serious competition for the titles.