Czech jockey Filip Minařík has won his fourth German flat jockeys’ championship. It is the first time that he has managed to defend a championship won in the previous season. After the last racing day of the season, he shares the title with Alexander Pietsch. Neither of them, however, took part in this final day’s racing, so the title was decided at the penultimate meeting, at Neuss, where Pietsch rode four winners to catch up with Minařík and take a share of the championship, the second in his career.

In the German championship, the decisive factor is the number of winners. Unlike in the Czech Republic, second places are not used as a tie-breaker. Otherwise, Minařík with 24 more second places than his rival, would have been declared the outright winner. Slovak jockey Jozef Bojko finished in the top ten places, as usual. Kazakh jockey Bauyrzhan Murzabayev, who has several times won the Czech flat jockey championship, finished 12^th in his first season in Germany. Hana Mouchová rode four winners, and René Koplík and Vlastislav Korytář rode one winner each. 

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This article, written by Petr Guth, was posted on the Czech language pages of Dostihový svět on December 26th, 2016. Translated by Robin Healey.