St Pancras (May 12^th), St Servatus (May 13^th) and St Boniface (May14th) are known in the Czech Republic as the Ice Saints, and it is interesting how often these saints’ days produce a night frost long after winter seems to have been left behind and long after nature has burst into spring mode. Climate change seems not yet to have affected the Ice Saints. This year, like last year, we had a couple of frosty mornings exactly on the days of the Ice saints. In most places, there was not enough frost to have given Czech farmers and gardeners much to complain about, especially if they had taken the Ice Saints into account and did not plant their carrots until after May 14th.

May 2019 was a mild month in most parts of the Czech Republic, with some useful rain in the second half. There were even some local floods – these are a constant threat here, as far too much construction has been done in the flood plains, and ever-increasing paved areas send rainwater straight into the drainage system and on into the rivers.

The major floods in Moravia in 1997 and in Bohemia in 2002 are still only partly forgotten, but the defensive measures that have been taken are mainly local solutions. Dikes are constructed to send the water in the small streams cascading into the rivers and on towards Germany. What is really needed is to retain much more water inside the landscape, in forests, wetlands and reservoirs, and not just put it into the river system.

In recent years, the aspect of climate change that been most striking here is the heat of the summers and the dryness of the soil. A friend who has a farm near Pardubice racecourse says the most worrying issue for him is the lowering of the water table. His neighbor decided to deepen his well by two metres, and the Pardubice farming community considers the drop in the water table to be very problematic.

What has all this to do with a newsletter on the Dostihový svět English pages, you may ask. Well, it is my monthly essay, in which I attempt to portray Czech horseracing in a broad context. To be honest, it is not mainly a matter of attracting as many ‘hits’ as possible and becoming an Influencer. It is more a matter of keeping my hand in, once a month, as a writer, and expressing what interests me and, I hope, what might also interest my target readers.

The state of the ground at Pardubice racecourse has been an issue for a long time. Our steeplechase season at Pardubice runs from the beginning of May until the end of October, with a summer break between the end of June and the end of August. Velka Pardubicka day is on the second Sunday in October. In recent years, very high air temperatures and firm going have become ‘normal’, even at the end of May and in mid September. Watering the course and, sometimes, running the races in the morning or in the evening, are attempts to give the horses acceptable conditions for racing – and I congratulate the ground staff on their efforts. Nevertheless, the racecourse, especially the ploughed fields, has gradually become desertified over the 25 years that I have been going to the races at Pardubice.

May was a comparatively rainy month this year, and the two race meetings were run on mild days. Nevertheless, the going was given as good (3.2 on May 8^th, and 3.3 on May 25^th). Good going is acceptable for steeplechasing, but something softer would have been better. After all the rain in Pardubice in May, we would have hoped for softer ground.

The first of the four VP qualification races at Pardubice went well. There were only 9 runners, but eight got round and qualified for the big race. The first and second in VP 2018 finished first and second again, but this time Hegnus won and Tzigane du Berlais came second. Both of these horses are leading contenders for the 2019 Velka.

I had intended to finish this newsletter on May 31^st, or at least before leaving for the races at Prague Velká Chuchle in the afternoon on June 1^st. Then I could have had my annual rant about the runners in the Derby, the most important race in the life of a Czech racehorse, still being unknown quantities a few weeks before the big race, and still being well short of the peak of their abilities when Derby day comes along. My complaint is not so much about the Derby itself, which is a lovely midsummer occasion, but about the lack of an opportunity for our leading stayers to run in a major race in the Czech Republic when they reach their peak, as four-year-olds.

Our main Derby trial, the Auto Jarov Kunratice June Grand Prix, 2200 metres, was run on June 1^st. As of June 3^rd, I must admit, not all our 3-y-o stayers are still unknown quantities. British-bred Angkor Wat, by Nathaniel, owned by Joly, trained by Josef Váňa snr and ridden by Jaromír Šafář, was the impressive winning favourite in the trial race, in record time for Velká Chuchle. The 2^nd - 4^th finishers, Pacific Hill, Big Ben and Chiouboucar, all finished close up. The Derby, run at Prague Velká Chuchle on Saturday, June 22^nd, is over a distance of 200 metres further, and the runners are all still maturing. Nevertheless, Angkor Wat is beginning to establish a reputation.

Note that Derby day is Saturday, June 22^nd, and on Sunday June 23^rd at Pardubice the main race will be the June qualification race for the Velka Pardubicka. Yes, it is confusing to have racing at Pardubice on a Sunday and at Velká Chuchle on a Saturday - but that’s the way it is!

Angkor Wat will clearly be a big favourite on Derby day. Now we will be looking out for the official handicap ratings, which decide the 16 horses for which places in the starting boxes will be available on June 22^nd. There is little enough evidence, most of it inconclusive, for our handicappers to distinguish between 14^th and 18^th place in the handicap, and there will be hard luck stories and some controversy. Several of the horses have gained their rating on the basis of a race over a distance of a mile, which seems unfair when they fail to stay. However, horseracing is not always fair.

The situation with betting at our racecourses, or at least at our main courses, is that Betino is still waiting for the renewal of its licence. If you want to bet, you have to register with Tipsport, which can be done at the racecourse. I have not been willing to give my details to Tipsport, or to any other bookie, so I am not sure what the procedure is. I may be foolish enough to have a small bet on the races, but I would rather not bet at all than have my name put on a register of gamblers that the bookie will sell on to any other organization ready to pay for a list of addresses of mugs [mug – a stupid or gullible person].

Is it really already June!