Just over a week ago the racing world was shocked to learn of the death of Filip Minarik
Filip was Czech, having been born in Prague, but found success as a jockey in Germany where he was Champion Jockey four times, rode 13 G1 winners and 1669 wins in total
He led the European team in the Shergar Cup in 2019 and in 2014 rode in the Japan Cup and then under a temporary licence in Japan where he had a large fan base.
He said that his win on Ivanhowe (who raced in Australia as Our Ivanhowe) in the Grosser Preis von Baden in 2014 was the highlight of his career, and we were lucky enough to have been there that day.
In 2020 he had a catastrophic fall in a race at Manheim where not just breaking a leg and an ankle he suffered a serious brain injury and was in an induced coma for several weeks. A gofundme page was set up to help the family with Frankie Dettori promoting it on social media. Filip was kind enough to thank us for our modest contribution when we met in Dubai earlier in the year – it was another of his marks as a gentleman.
The damage to his health caused by the fall meant the end of his racing career and although he was philosophical about it at the time it led to periods of depression and in the end it was the depression that won. He was always polite and attentive and eager to hear about racing in Australia and the Australian horses that travelled overseas.
He leaves a wife and a young daughter and we send them our deepest sympathies.
