3 minute read

Being a short train ride from Prague makes this a popular venue for tourists as well as locals.

This year's edition has 18 starters bit it would be a very rare event indeed if all 18 finished.  There are two Irish runners in this from Peter Maher's yard who have been in the Czech Republic for around 5 weeks being prepared for this by Grzegors Witold Woblewski.  While he thinks the horses have improved since being with him he admits it is not much time to prepare horses for a race that is around 7kms long and includes 30 jumps of various shapes and sizes including the infamous Taxis which generally comes at around the 4th jump and sorts out the men from the boys.

Sean O'Keefe is riding Jet Fighter and Petr Tuma Alpha Male, neither of which are given much of a chance.

Patrick Mullins is back again and has scored the ride on last year's winner Mr Spex and he is given some chance on 13/2, but on that quote we prefer Lodgian Whistle trained by the legendary Josef Vana,

Favourite is Sacamiro with Jan Falkajsek riding and he has won this before so knows how to get round the course.  They are on 7/2 and the other fancied runner is Argano on 11/2 for trainer-jockey Martin Liska.

There's generally a huge crowd on hand and it's like a fun fair as you walk from the gate to the stands with stalls selling everything you could think of for your horse and of course an infinite variety of foods – the Czecks like their food.  However even with the big crowds the grounds are kept very clean and it is a pleasure to wander around and watch whole families enjoying the outing.