Page 46 - THE SLOUGHI REVIEW SPECIAL ISSUE 7 B

T H E S L O U G H I R E V I E W 4 6

Czech Republic

Sighthound racing also has its history in the Czech Republic. Already in the interwar

period, the first informal sighthound races were held in Prague on public areas, like
meadows, parks and sports fields where the races were also sometimes attended by
bettors — the conditions at that time were simple, often without starting boxes and with
waving a scarf as a signal to start.
According to documents from the Greyhound breeders' club, 1927 was the year of the first
official races under the auspices of the then-established Greyhound breeders' club. In

that year was the start of organized Greyhound breeding, the beginning of records, rules
and structure.

Racetracks

In the second half of the 20th century, several permanent racetracks were established in
Czechoslovakia, two of them are still in operation in 2025:

* Lednice (Moravia) – the first permanent racetrack was opened in 1977, where scoring
races and races with the participation of dozens of sighthounds and a large audience
were held. This grass track is still in operation today.
* Kolín – the track was officially opened on June 20, 1981, where the first major races with
more than a hundred participants and heats were held. This grass track is also still in

operation today.
* Kraslice, Mladá Boleslav – other racecourses appeared in the 1980s, some disappeared,
others survived. Mladá Boleslav is not in operation anymore.
* In 2000, the Praskačka track was opened (date given as July 8, 2000), which became one
of the important modern sighthound tracks in the Czech Republic. It is now closed.

Participation of the Sloughi breed in racing

Accurate historical records of their participation in sighthound racing in the Czech
Republic are difficult to find. However, according to seasonal statistics from 2001, at least
one representative of the Sloughi breed regularly participated in racing as part of
amateur events.
This means that the Sloughi breed was actively involved in racing already at the beginning

of the modern era of racing in the Czech Republic, although it was not a mass
participation, but rather an individual among other breeds. In 1998, the first Sloughi to
race on a track in the Czech Republic was the French bred male Nilda Rais Siyada. He was
a racing champion of the Czech Republic in 1999, 2000, 2001 and 2002. He was the first
Czech owned Sloughi, participating in a FCI World Championship, in 2001, held in
Münster, Germany. He finished in seventh place.