Czech 2000 Guineas: Age of Jape

Welldancer and Amber Hill win at Pardubice

The second meeting of the season at Pardubice was held on Saturday May 16th. It was a pleasantly warm afternoon after a grey morning. The official going was good, which means pretty firm for steeplechasing. The main race of the afternoon was an oval track steeplechase over 3900 metres, Cat I, sponsored by Ingbau CZ. Amber Hill beat Jam-Bella by a short head, with the favourite Color Man a length away in third place.
This was a quality race with a terrific finish. Jam-Bella, who won four races over hurdles at Warsaw last year, made most of the pace and put up a great fight in the finishing straight, but Amber Hill, ridden by Josef Van*a junior, just got up. The other major race was a Cat II crosscountry race over 3400 metres, sponsored by Color Car. This attracted only 6 runners, two of which fell early on. However, the other four came to the last fence almost in a line. Welldancer, who showed considerable promise here last year, won from Tammybin, Ignacio and Archea. The winners of the two main races are both owned by Hexion-Vana, trained by Josef Vana senior and were ridden by Josef Vana junior.
Mastman, who finished 4th in the 2005 Czech Derby, won a Cat IV race quite well, after falling here 8 days earlier and, before that, being out of competition for almost two years.

Jockey news

Marcel Novak rode two winners at Pardubice on Saturday. He passed the 50 wins marker, and has earned the title *jockey*. Josef Vana junior had three winners in the course of the afternoon (Mastman, Amber Hill, Welldancer), and he now leads the jumps jockeys with six winners, ahead of Marcel Novak (5) and Dusan Andres (4). Champion jockey Josef Bartos appears to be making a good recovery from his recent facial bone injuries, and is considering returning to the saddle at Merano on Saturday.

May 23rd * First VP qualifying race at Pardubice

The feature race of the meeting on Saturday at Pardubice is the first qualifying race for this year*s Velka Pardubicka. Some of the potential favourites for October are hoping to get their qualification in on ground that is not excessively hard. Amant Gris, Moning Let and Juventus are entered, together with Tomis, Pocci, Mandarino and Shirley, who won at Bratislava in April. Tomis won the Labe Prize on VP day 2008, after being disqualified and reinstated, and Pocci finished just behind
him (later placed 3rd by the stewards).

Entries for the Velka Pardubicka

Entries for the Velka Pardubicka close on Thursday May 21st, at midday.
Supplementary entries can be made up to a couple of weeks before the race.

Prague Velka Chuchle May 24th * first race at 1.30 p.m.

Please note that the first race on Sunday will be at 1.30 p.m., half an hour earlier than usual.

Age of Jape wins the Two Thousand Guineas

Polish-bred Age of Jape (Jape(USA) * Age of Gold (GB)(Belmez(USA)), owned by Baca Palkovice, trained by Frantisek Holcak and ridden by Jean-Pierre Lopez, won the Czech Two Thousand Guineas (1600 metres, Listed, Kc 1200000), sponsored by Holding Rabbit CZ, by a neck from Polish-bred Iryklon, by Novogrodek. Age of Jape got home by a neck in a well-fought finish, with Iryklon on the rail and Age of Jape on the wide outside. Age of Jape had won the main Guineas Trial at Bratislava and Iryklon had won the equivalent race here at Prague Velka Chuchle. Age of Jape has now won his last 5 races, at Warsaw, Bratislava and now Velka Chuchle, none of them by more than one and a quarter lengths. He will now presumably go on to the Derby, but the extra 800 metres is unlikely to suit him. Trainer Frantisek Holcak has now won this race seven times.

May 24th

The eighth meeting of the season at Prague Velka Chuchle will be on Sunday May 24th. We will be hoping for yet another sunny Sunday afternoon like all the previous seven. The main race will be the 60th running of the May Grand Prix, Cat I, 1600 metres. This has attracted a good field. Sharpour beat several of these here on April 26th, and is likely to win again.

Janacek not satisfied with a hat trick

Champion jockey Vaclav Janacek rode 3 winners last Sunday, and has now had 23 winners already this season. Petr Foret, in second place in the jockeys* championship, is on seven winners. Two of Janacek*s wins were in close finishes and owed a lot to his jockeyship. However, he was beaten by a neck on Iryklon in the Two Thousand Guineas, and he blamed himself for changing hands with his whip rather clumsily in the last 100
metres.