Acute shortage of jumps jockeys

The long-term shortage of jumps jockeys in the Czech Republic is a particularly acute problem at the moment. Our best riders are in demand abroad, especially in Italy. Jan Faltejsek and Petr Tuma are to be based in Italy this summer, and all our jockeys make frequent trips to meetings there. At the moment, Josef Bartos is recovering from broken vertebrae. He hopes to be back in the saddle for the next meeting at Pardubice, on May 22nd. Dusan Andres has a broken arm, and should be back in June. At the recent meeting at Pardubice, Marek Stromsky suffered a bad break and has undergone a successful operation. At the same meeting, successful flat jockey Jakub Pavlicek suffered a broken collar bone in his first race over fences in almost seven years.