Pardubice: Outsider wins a qualifier
The June qualifying race for the 119th Ceska Pojistovna Velka Pardubicka produced a close finish and a shock result. The outsider Profil, owned by Mikrop *ebín-Sunnyfarm, trained by Jiri Janda, and ridden by Michal Köhl, won in a blanket finish from Del Sole, Sixteen, Mr Land and Welldancer, with just over two lengths between first and fifth. Other finishers, which also qualify for the big race, were, in descending order, Juventus, Jung, Derby Sharp, Korinka, Baccarat, Claudio, Rubin and Lirain. Hirsch was pulled up, Marath and Red Dancer fell, and German Malt and Numero Due unseated their riders.
The race was run at a good pace, and it was noticeable that the four Vana-trained horses were held back. Numero Due ran prominently for a long way before he unseated his rider, and Profil went with the pace. In the run in, Profil was hotly pursued by the Vana horses, but held on valiantly. This was a meritorious and popular win by Profil for a local stable, but Josef Vana will have been pleased that his horses all had a good outing, got round safely, and are looking good for the big race in October. However, being Josef Vana, he wiill not be happy that the main prize was won by someone else. Del Sole, which finished second, was the least favoured of Vana's runners. Sixteen was left with a lot to do in the last 500 metres. She seemed to fancy her chances of catching Profil, but the winning post came too soon. Welldancer, ridden here by Rafaelle Romano, also did well to finish 5th. Juventus was a few lengths back in sixth place, but was not given a hard race. Fourth-placed Mr Land is no longer trained Josef Vana, and is now in Pavel Slozil's yard. By the way, Josef Vana snr has declared that he intends to ride Welldancer in the VP, and would have been in the saddle on Saturday if he had not had an injured arm.
A good day at Pardubice
A big crowd turned out for the races at Pardubice on June 13th, on a pleasantly mild midsummer afternoon. After a week with some useful rainfall, the course was in very good condition. I checked it with my own eyes and feet, and have never seen such fine turf at Pardubice. This has been a good season for grass, but quite a lot of credit should also go to the ground staff at the course.
The main race produced a surprise. The outsider Profil beat a number of good horses, and is clearly better than most of us had assumed. Other horses that impressed in the course of the afternoon were Mastman, trained by Josef Vana, ridden by Josef Bartos, who won a Cat III crosscountry after winning a Cat IV race here four weeks earlier.
Mastman was 4th in the 2005 Czech Derby, and could turn out to be very good over fences. Kamienczyk, owned by Wrbna Racing, trained by Cestmir Olehla and ridden by Jan Faltejsek, won a Cat II steeplechase. He too had won a Cat IV race four weeks earlier. Blizzard, returning to the course after almost two years, won a Cat IV race pretty comfortably.
Archea confirmed that she is one of our best two miles chasers, winning from Gernia. The next meeting at Pardubice is on Saturday, June 27th, when the main race will be the Chladek and Tintera Gold Cup, on the oval steeplechase course.
Paracchini wins the big hurdle race at Merano
Jockeys and trainers headed straight from Pardubice to Merano, a six-hour drive even for steeplechase jockeys, on Saturday evening. The Czechs had a good day in Italy on Sunday, winning the first two places in the main event, the Gran Corsa Siepi D`Italia, 82 000 Euros, 4000 metres, hurdles. Paracchini (Vana, J. Bartos) won by a head from Royal Mougins (F. Holcak, P. Johnson), conceding 2* kg to him. Bartos also won on Sherento.
Long losing streak broken
Jumps rider Lukas Sloup had last ridden a winner at Radslavice on 29 April 2006, and had since ridden 179 times without further success ...
until the last race at Karlovy Vary on Sunday, when he got home on Shanna, trained by Tomas Hurt, in a close finish. Lukas has now ridden 10 winners. He is far from our worst rider over fences, but he has gained an unfortunate reputation, exploited by trainers, for being prepared to ride absolutely anything.
Riders` championship still close
As of mid-June, the jumps` jockeys championship is closer than ever.
Bohuslav Matl has taken the lead from Jan Faltejsek, Josef Vana jnr and Pavel Kasny. All are now on 7 winners this season. Marcel Novak is one behind them. Josef Bartos had his first two winners of the season on Saturday, and threatens all those ahead of him. They have perhaps failed to take full enough advantage of his absence from the saddle earlier in the season.