Raffaelo Romano rides at Pardubice on Saturday

Romano rides for Radek

On Saturday May 22nd, Italian champion jockey Raffaelo Romano will be riding at Pardubice for trainer Radek Holcak, whose stable jockey Marek Stromsky is out of action. This will be Romano's fourth visit to Pardubice, and he will have high hopes of riding his first winner here, with rides on Bejrut, Nick of Gold and Bremen Plan. Another interesting engagement is by trainer Cestmir Olehla, who has invited Jakub Kocman to ride Ignacio. Jakub has been working in the norht of England for George Charlton for some time, and has had a few rides there. Jan Faltejsek and Jiri Kousek nowadays usually make their way home for the meetings at Pardubice, and both will be here on Saturday. Last but not least, Irish jockey Ken Whelan will be making another visit to Pardubice, and will be on Il en Reve in the VP qualifying race.   

Favero may enter horses for the Velka Pardubicka

According to our Italian correspondent, top Italian trainer Paolo Favero was not ready to make entries for the Velka Pardubicka before the closing date in mid May, five months prior to the race. He will consider making supplementary entries later in the year, but he referred to the race, not incorrectly, as "difficult and dangerous", and he may consider that there are other priorities for his best horses.

Pardubice on May 22nd

The second meeting of the season at Pardubice is British Day, featuring the first qualifying race for the Velka Pardubicka. There are nine races on the card, and each has at least 10 declared runners. There has been plenty of recent rain in the Czech Republic, and there is no danger of hard ground. The first race is at 1 p.m.