Final meeting of the season at Pardubice on Saturday

There is always an enormous contrast between the bustling Velka Pardubicka meeting, on the second Sunday in October, and the final day of the season, on the fourth Saturday of the same month, which is the humblest meeting of the season. The main race is the Final Steeplechase, Category II, which provides an opportunity for a horse that did not get very far on VP day to make another attempt to contribute to his winter feed. Hirsch, the only horse to come down at the Taxis, will be in the field, together with Ignacio, which also failed to get round on VP day, and Bejrut, which has been off the racecourse for more than a year. I note that Dandys, which came down as early as the 2nd fence in a race on October 11th, will be trying again, this time in a Category IV race.

Josef Vana junior is unassailable in the jumps jockeys' championship, though it is not totally clear that he will be awarded the nice prize awarded by EZ Praha for the champion rider. Technically, he is not a 'rider' but an 'apprentice', and some say that apprentices should not take food out of the mouths of riders and jockeys. Second place - or do I mean first place - in the riders' championship remains wide open. Dusan Andres, Jaroslav Myska, Josef Bartos and Bohuslav Matl have all ridden 14 winners, Jan Faltejsek has ridden 13, and Marcel Novak 11. The first prize is 90 000 crowns, and in my opinion young Josef, with 21 winners, richly deserves it. With prize money going down the 5th place in the list, there will be very keen competition among these jockeys next Saturday and in the small number of other jumps races at Velka Chuchle and at Slusovice before the end of the season.