CENTRAL Europe provides us, I think, with a fascinating case history. It exemplifies both the wonderful resilience of horse racing – which I think we should all celebrate more often – and is also interesting because it is an area of the world where individual neighbouring racing authorities have identified benefits in collaborating between themselves within a sub-region.

For the purpose of this article, we’re defining ‘Central Europe’ as these five countries – Poland, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Austria and Hungary – countries whose racing authorities have come together to form an organisation known as KMET (an acronym from the German) which has sought to encourage greater international competition, fixture list cooperation and rules harmonisation, all with the purpose of raising the profile and success of racing in the region, but while maintaining an active part in both the International Federation of Horseracing Authorities and the European and Mediterranean Horseracing Federation.