This interview with Jan Faltejsek was taken soon after the Velka Pardubicka in October 2023 by Dostihový svět

Czech horseracing has enjoyed a great deal of publicity in the last two months in relation to the Petition to Save the Napajedla Stud. The petition aimed to preserve the Napajedla stud farm, which has been the biggest and best-known Thoroughbred breeding institution in the Czech Republic (Czechoslovakia) throughout its almost 140-year history; and also to block the present owner’s efforts to get building permission and sell the pastures where mares and foals have frolicked happily for all those years.

This interview with Martin Cáp was conducted by Jana Šejnohová. Martin’s eagerly-awaited history of the Czechoslovak/Czech Derby, under the title Dostihy o Modrou Stuhu (Races for the Blue Riband) appeared in January 2024.

I had hoped and expected that someone would publish some facts and figures about Czech horseracing early in 2024, and that I would be able to translate them into English for the Dostihový svět web pages.

At its meeting on November 30^th, 2023, the final point on the agenda of the Council of the Jockey Club of the Czech Republic was the election of the president of the Jockey Club of the Czech Republic for a four-year period. The two candidates were the present president since the end of 2019, Ing. Josef Bečvář, and his predecessor, JUDr. Ing. Jiří Charvát, who served as president from April 2014 until December 2019. In the first round of voting, neither candidate won the required two thirds majority, and in the second round Jiří Charvát won by ten votes to five.

The school for apprentices at Prague Velká Chuchle racecourse provides a good opportunity for young people to learn to care for racehorses and start on their way towards becoming a jockey and working with horses. Each September, there is a new intake of teenagers – nowadays mainly girls – and the hardest-working and most talented can progress quite quickly.

On October 24^th, Dostihový spolek, organisers of events at Pardubice racecourse, announced that it was cancelling the final race meeting of the 2023 season at Pardubice, which had been scheduled for November 12th.

The declared runners and riders for the Velka Pardubicka were announced on Wednesday, September 27^th. Three entered horses were not declared. French-trained Polinuit ran in the Gran Premio at Merano last weekend, instead of the Velka Pardubicka, and finished third. Gap Pierji, one of two entries owned by Scuderia Aichner, ran in the Crystal Cup race at Merano last weekend, and finished second. The other non-runner is outsider Paris Eiffel.

Slavia Insurance, now in their fifth year as the main sponsor of the Velka Pardubicka, put up special sponsorship for this year’s second VP qualification race on June 24^th at Pardubice racecourse. Prizemoney of one million Czech crowns (more than EUR 40 000) was a very large amount for a race over obstacles in the Czech Republic, though the Velka Pardubicka carries prizemoney of CZK 5 million this year.

Four big owners have dominated Czech horseracing for the last decade, and have won almost one fifth of the prizemoney