The European Jockeys Cup meeting at Prague Velká Chuchle on September 2^nd was a major event, successfully implemented with the help of many volunteers. As Martin Cáp commented, in the course of the long and very good television coverage, the experience of getting top jockeys to participate in such an event illustrated why such international jockey events are so rare. Nevertheless, a good group of 16 jockeys was brought together. After three successful iterations, the EJC event has been able to show that      the best of flat racing at Prague Velká Chuchle is on a good European level.

There were seven EJC races, each of which was televised on the sports channel of Czech television, in two parts, a total of almost three and a half hours of transmission. http://www.ceskatelevize.cz/ivysilani/11832253188-dostihy-2017/217471291202009-evropsky-pohar-zokeju-2017/

http://www.ceskatelevize.cz/ivysilani/11832253188-dostihy-2017/217471291202011-evropsky-pohar-zokeju-2017/

The winning jockey in the cup competition was Thomas Huet (picture), a French jockey who quite recently returned from spending 4 years riding  in Australia. He won the first and last races, which were both minor races. The other minor race was won by top Greek jockey Panagiotis Dimitsanis, who made himself very popular with his Greek supporters in Prague.

The top race of the day, the EJC Leram Million, 1400 metres, was won by Ultimate Fight, ridden by French jockey Vincent Cheminaud, who has been successfully making the rare transition from a jumps jockey to a flat jockey. The EJC Pemat Trading Gerscha Memorial for 2-y-os was won by King Heart, ridden by Slovak jockey Jaroslav Línek. The EJC Lokotrans Middle, 1800 metres, went to Venillia, trained by Martina Růžičková and ridden by Kazakh jockey Bauyrzhan Murzabayev, the best jockey in recent years in the Czech Republic, who is this season rapidly establishing himself as a top jockey in Germany. The horse, the trainer and the jockey are very popular – Venillia is the leading candidate for Czech racehorse of the year. The EJC Trade Fides Long, 2400 metres, produced a shock result. Eskerkhan had raced only once here after running with some success on sand tracks in Russia. He had had his first run on grass at Most just a week earlier, and had finished last of seven. This time, under French jockey Stéphane Breux, he appeared to decide that running on grass is OK - in fact, quite a lot better than sand!

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photo by Jana Syručková  http://www.dostihovy-svet.cz/cs/node/7533