26 left in the Czech Derby

At the forfeit stage on June 11th, 26 horses were left in the Czech Derby. Only 16 places are available in the starting gates, so 10 will not get into the race. The declaration to run is on Tuesday at 10 o'clock on June 15th. The list of horses still in the race, together with their official ratings, is given here

Just one horse was supplemented at this final opportunity. This was Nordost, trained by Pavel Kinsky. Nordost finished a reasonably close 6th of 6 in the German Derby Trial at Hannover recently, and received a sufficiently high German rating to get into the field for the Derby.

There are always a number of disappointed owners and trainers. Dekolt finished 2nd in the last Derby trial at Velka Chuchle, but was only rated at 77,5 kg. He is 19th best-rated of the remaining entries. Lamasar was expensively bought, but lost his rider in the first of the main Trials, and then finished down the field last Sunday. He is one of 4 remaining entries that does not have a Czech rating, and looks very unlikely to get into the race. Darsalam's trainer Arslangirej Savujev had had high hopes all winter, but neither Madanpour nor Ivan Poddubny has shown much form this season, and neither is likely to run on June 21st.