Congratulations to the organizers of European Jockeys’ Cup day. Despite the worst efforts of the virus, the meeting took place, and towards the end of the afternoon, rather surprisingly, the sun came out from behind thick clouds. French jockey Vincent Cheminaud smiled and said nice words as he accepted the trophy.  

Vincent Cheminaud had stepped in at the last moment, after last year’s EJC winner, Christophe Soumillon, dropped out with an injury. Cheminaud picked up the good rides that owners and trainers had offered to Christophe Soumillon. He finished 1st, 1st and 2nd in his first three rides. Although Czech jockey Adam Florian rode the last two winners of the afternoon, it was only enough to win him 2nd place in the EJC. Third place went to Slovak jockey Jaroslav Línek.

The real winner on European Jockeys’ Cup day was not a jockey, but a trainer. Arslangirej Šavujev sent out three winners of high category races, all of them for owners  Russian Racing Syndicate. Each of the three horses was ridden by a different guest jockey.  Vincent Cheminaud rode ViFi, which won the 2-y-o race comfortably, and Politicum  won the main event, the EJC Million, under Jaroslav Línek. The last race of the afternoon went to Cape Freedom, ridden by Adam Florian. Arslangirej Šaváujev had also won one of  the main events of the Autumn Festival meeting on the Saturday afternoon, also at Prague Velká Chuchle with Torque Power.

In the two meetings at Prague Velká Chuchle, on the Saturday and Sunday, there was one Graded 3 race, five Listed races, and two Category I races, and Šavujev won four of them. In spite of the virus, Czech racing is still very much alive.