Saturday, September 22nd will be the eagerly-awaited 4th European Jockeys Cup day at Prague Velká Chuchle racecourse. Sixteen jockeys are on the list of nominated riders, see below. As far as I know, the exact time of the first race has not been announced, but it will be at about 2 pm, with a parade introducing the jockeys before the first race, and an autograph session at some stage in the afternoon.

On Wednesday, September 19th, in a ceremony at the Clarion Old Town Hotel in Prague, the jockeys will be assigned to horses. For the four main races (EJC Middle, EJC Long, the Gersch Memorial, and the biggest race, EJC Million, with prizemoney of over 2 million Czech crowns, each horse will have a handicap rating, and the connections of the horses will be able to select the jockey of their choice, beginning with the horse with the highest rating and ending with the horse with the lowest rating. To ensure that each jockey gets a more or less equal number of rides, and at the very least three rides in the course of the afternoon, the rides in three of the other four races will assigned in a weighted ballot that takes into account the number of rides that the jockey has in the main races, and also his riding weight. The best minds in Czech horseracing will be working out how to get it right, even if a jockey with a relatively low riding weight drops out at the last moment, and will be anxiously watching the draw.

The other race on the card is a Celebrity race, in which the horses will be ridden by trainers. Many of the trainers were distinguished jockeys in the past. 65-year-old Velka Pardubicka legend Josef Váňa, who has never yet won an official race on the flat, which this will be. He has been getting himself into shape for the race, which will be very competitive. The Celebrity race is a new feature of EJC day this year. 

List of riders nominated for EJC 2018:

Faleh Bughanaim (Qatar)
Panagiotis Dimitsanis (Greece)
Brett Doyle (UK)
Jean-Bernard Eyquem (France)
Borja Fayos (Spain)
Per-Anders Graberg (Sweden)
Andreas Helfenbein (Germany)
Václav Janáček (Czech Republic)
Konstantinos Kapodistrias (Cyprus)
Jaroslav Línek (Slovakia)
Tomáš Lukášek (Czech Republic)
Bauyrzhan Murzabayev (Kazakhstan)
Tadhg O’Shea (Ireland)
Vladimir Panov (Russia)
Eduardo Pedroza (Panama)
Ricardo Sousa Ferreira (Portugal)