Meran Results - Sun, Aug 30th 2009: Chapeau, but no wins, for Vana

The feature race at Meran on August 30th was a Gr. 3 steeplechase, open to Italian-trained horses only; Czech trainers had to concentrate on the side races.The only Czech winner was Night Rider who captured one of the hurdles races of the meeting. He is trained by J. Hanacek and was ridden by Italian jockey D. Columbu.

In another hurdles race, Vana-trained Goldrun ridden by Bartos (and owned by CK-Martin Tour) finished third. The third of the hurdles races of the day saw three Czech horses finish in the third, fourth and fifth place. They were Tammy's Classy (Kovar /Myska), Universe Of Gracie (Juranek /Faltejsek) and Budapest (Vana /Bartos), in that order.

The most interesting result of the meeting was in the Premio Arma di Cavalleria, a cross country over the distance of 5,000 metres; and this for at least a couple of reasons. The winner, Fatal Mac, is the horse that run in the 2008 Velka Pardubicka (the first ever contestant in Italian colours since the foundation of the race) and that was supplemented last week to run this year again. Italian champion trainer Paolo Favero has now three horses entered for the VP -Kandiskiy, Poggio Torselli and Fatal Mac.

Today at Meran, Fatal Mac was ridden to victory by Raffaele Romano (who also rode him last year at Pardubice). Fatal Mac won by one and a half lengths from Vana-trained Lutin Des Bordes, who had jockey Fuhrmann in the saddle. Radslav (trainer Juranek, jockey Myska) finished third. Vana's choice for Bartos was Black Diamond, but rider and horse did not finish home together.

After the final race, a special Old Glories race was run today at Meran celebrating some of the famous, legendary jump jockeys who made the history of the local turf in the recent decades and who are darling to the local public. Many of them are top trainers now, and run once again in racing silks in front of their fans. The only non-Italian among those at the start was the Czech legend Josef Vana, who is also the only one who - in sharp contrast to his colleagues - is still active as a full-time jockey! Chapeau! as the French would say.