The biggest topic in Czech racing in June was How to make sense of the Czech Derby? It was a weird race. There were 16 runners, and 7 of the first 8 were total outsiders, offered at 20:1 or more by our miserly on-course bookmaker! Of the first 6 horses at the halfway point, none finished higher than 10^th! Of course, there is no clear logical explanation for a result like this, and there is no need to expect one. Baffling results are a part of the fascination of horse racing.

There was a big turn of speed by the leading horses from the crown of the first bend down towards the end of the back straight. Presumably 8 or 10 jockeys had been told to take the lead, or at worst to be in 2^nd or 3^rd place at that point. All of the horses that went with the pace were either burned out by the pace or did not stay the distance, and all the leaders started dropping back quite early in the finishing straight. Joseph and Felix came from behind, well away from the rail, and their veteran jockeys, Jiří Palík and Jan Rája, engaged in a a big battle to the line, which Joseph and Palík won on the nod.

Two people whose job was to make sense of the race were the joint official handicappers, Jan Žid and Jaroslav Fabris. They decided to give a considerably lower rating to this year’s Derby winner than to last year’s winner, Gontchar, and in fact a slightly lower rating than they had awarded to the Derby trial winner, Black Canyon. However, they lowered Black Canyon’s rating by 1 kg for his 10^th place finish in the Derby. According to the handicappers’ latest ratings, the Derby result “should have been” 1. Joseph (1st in the Derby), equal second, Felix (2^nd in the Derby) and Black Canyon (finished 10^th), 4. Sir Sun (finished 5^th), and 5. George Boole (finished 3^rd). This is a clever solution by the handicappers, but Joseph achieved the second-best time ever for the Derby. Perhaps the handicappers rated him and Felix two or three kilos less than they deserved, in order to make their ratings, after a weird race, look neater and more logical than the real situation was. Jaroslav Fabris wrote an interesting article on the Tipařův palec (Tipster’s Thumb) website saying that, if the 16 Derby runners were to race against each other again, he is pretty sure the result would be quite different. It is hard to disagree with that conclusion.

The other talking point about the Derby was the level of the fines levied on the three jockeys found guilty of overuse of the whip. Winning jockey Jiří Palík received a CzK 50 000 fine and a one-day suspension; second-placed Jan Rája received a CzK 27 500 fine and a two-day suspension; Tomáš Lukásek, who finished 6th on Aeneas, received a CzK 5 000 fine and a one-day suspension. These fines were enormously higher than any fines issued before for overuse of the whip in the Czech Republic, but they are in accordance with new guidelines. These state that the fine should be 5% of the prizemoney for the race in which the offence was committed. (5% of the prizemoney is the amount that the organizers pay automatically into the jockey’s account, though I understand that some jockeys are able to negotiate a further payment, in addition to the amount automatically deducted from the prizemoney).

Attitudes to use of the whip have been changing in the Czech Republic as elsewhere in Europe. The amount of use of the whip in the 2017 Czech Derby would barely have raised an eyebrow a few years ago, and even now, plenty of people thought jockeys doing their best to win a close finish in a major race might be forgiven for two or three more whacks than are allowed. On the other hand, others think that horses that win a race through overuse of the whip should be disqualified or at least relegated. I am against races being decided by the stewards, and I am against overuse of the whip, so I am not of much use in this discussion.

In the past, it has been normal for a considerable number of good finishers in the Czech Derby to go on to run in the Slovak Derby at Bratislava, three weeks later. This year, only two runners in the Czech Derby, George Boole (finished 3^rd) and Aeneas (finished 6^th), are still entered for the Slovak race.

Finally, as far as the Czech Derby is concerned, Jiří Charvát’s private trainer, Pavel Tůma, will have learned a lesson from training the winner of the race. He said very openly that the owner should not run three horses in the Derby, and that he should take the no-hoper, Joseph, out of the race, and rely on his other two runners - Dominique, which finished 12th, and Fighting Lips, which finished 15th. He no doubt now wishes he had kept his opinion to himself, and had just claimed the credit for his win after the race. By contrast, jockey Jiří Palík had campaigned hard to get the ride on Joseph, though he could probably have got an more fancied ride in the race.

The day before the Derby, the second Velka Pardubicka qualification race was run at Pardubice. It was a very hot day, as so many VP qualification days have been in recent years. It was a tough race with a rousing finish, in which Goscater narrowly beat Hegnus, and both looked like good contenders for the big race on October 8th. Third and fourth place went to Váňa-trained Wild Danger and Theophilos. They were quite well beaten, but they are both safely qualified and could come good later in the year.

On the train to Pardubice, I noted that the central and east Bohemian countryside was already turning yellow. That does not usually happen a week before the end of June here. However, June had been a very dry and hot month, with a dry wind and high temperatures in the second half of the month. However, on June 29th we had eighteen hours of steady rain here in Prague, and that was enough to cause flooding on one of the streams that flows into the Berounka, the tributary that flows into the Vltava just upstream from Velká Chuchle racecourse. The local people, I am told, used to keep the stream dredged, with their own shovels, to prevent flooding. Now, though, their children work in Prague and campaign, so far unsuccessfully, for the authorities to build a levee for them.

Our racing season used to divide rather neatly into three parts: spring ran from the beginning of April until the end of June, and came to an end with the Derby and the second Qualification race for the Velka Pardubicka.Then came the two-month summer season, when Prague Velká Chuchle and Pardubice both took a break. Karlovy Vary and Most racecourses put on serious races, including the Oaks, which will this year be run at Karlovy Vary on Sunday July 23rd. A number of small up-country courses used to put on picturesque racedays in the summer period. Then, at the end of August, Pardubice used open again with the Third VP Qualification Race and Prague Velká Chuchle with the St Leger.

It is not exactly the same this year. In July this year, there are five Saturdays, five Sundays and two public holidays. In the past, there would have been races somewhere on most of these days. This year, however, we have two blank Saturdays, three blank Sundays and one blank public holiday. In their place, we have Parimutuel (PMU) day at Most on Friday July 21st. The July race day at Pardubice, introduced a couple of years ago, will be run again this year, on Saturday, July 29th. Let us hope for a cool day!

The small racecourses have always come and gone, but in recent years, more have gone than have come, and some of them have preferred not to hold their race day in midsummer. A meeting was originally announced for Slušovice in July, but it was cancelled due to failure of the local authorities to agree to prepare the course. The good news is that the meetings at Slušovice in September and October will take place, and that the 2018 season at Slušovice will receive good support from the town and from the region.

It was good to spend the weekend of the second Qualification Race at Pardubice and Derby day at Prague Velká Chuchle with Mark Buchan, sales manager of Baileys Horse Feeds. I heard a lot of interesting stuff about diets for equine athletes, and a whole lot of other things. Mark showed impressive knowledge of the Dostihový svět English language pages. On July 6th, I’ll be going to the  races with Martin Pennington, another of the small number of people who study the Dostihový svět English language pages remarkably carefully. Martin is a member of the Luka Racing Syndicate that owns Alpha Wolf, trained by Václav Luka jnr.

Martin also diligently studies the excellent Jockey Club of the Czech Republic website http://www.dostihyjc.cz/dostihy.php. I have not praised this website recently. It was a very early website of its type, and it has always been very accurate, very complete, very up-to-date, and very user-friendly.