The  third of the four qualification races for the 134th running of the Velka Pardubicka for 2024 was run on August 3rd. As in the the case of the May and June qualification races, the course was in good condition, thanks to the good efforts of the ground staff. Some considerable rainfall in the days before each of the races and cool weather on the  days of the races also helped considerably.

The August qualification race was sponsored by Chaldek & Tintera, a local construction company that has been a long-term supporter of racing at Pardubice. Twenty-two horses had  already fulfilled the qualification conditions in May and June, plus last year’s VP winner, Sacamiro, which qualifies automatically. Twelve runners were entered this time, eight of which were already qualified. The new contenders were Nordstrand, an 8-y-o trained by Josef Váňa senior; Del Rey, a 9-y-o that won the May qualification race in 2022 but had been off the course since that occasion; Bilbo d’Assault, which finished 2nd in the Vltava Stakes on VP day 2023; and Well Absolut, which won the Labe Stakes on VP day in 2022 as a very promising 6-y-o, but had only run once since then.

As I cannot improve on the report on the race by Dostihový spolek Pardubice, I will just translate it and add a couple of explanatory notes for readers who do not know the background as well as Czech readers of DS Pardubice's press releases:

The winner of the third qualification race for the 134^th running of the Velka Pardubicka with Slavia Insurance was 8-y-o Chelmsford. He was ridden by Jan Kratochvíl, who rode a hat-trick of winners on the afternoon. Just one horse’s name was added to the list of horses qualified for this year’s Velka Pardubicka, and that was Well Absolut.

Jaroslav Myška on Well Absolut set an appropriate pace, as he often does in our races, with Adam Čmiel on Sexy Lord accompanying him. Martin Liška and Argano dropped in at the back of the field, as usual, this time together with French jockey Thomas Beaurain, who was on VP 2022 winner Mr Spex. The 12 runners jumped soundly – a feature of all this year’s qualification races. However, Imphal was slow over the Drop, and his French jockey Alexandre Baudoin-Boin, pulled him up. At the same point, his French colleague Thomas Beaurain pulled up Mr Spex.

The only fall in the race was at the plane fence behind the copse, where Del Rey, making his comeback after more than two years off the track, parted company with Lukáš Matuský. After the English fence, with about a kilometre to go, the pace hotted up. Chelmsford took over the lead, followed by Well Absolut and Sexy Lord. Her Him, ridden by the only woman rider in the race, Lenka Neprašová, also still had something left over. Argano, tried to get on terms with them, but he never got nearer than fifth place. Lombargini (Jan Odložil) and Kaiserwalzer (Ondřej Velek) got round in 6^th and 7^th place. Bilbo d’Assault and Nordstrand were pulled up towards the end of the race and did not fulfil the qualification conditions. After the last fence, Chelmsford drew right away from the field, winning very easily by 18 lengths.

However, Chelmsford was lame at the end of the race, and it remains to be seen how serious his injury will be. “Chelmsford won easily. If his injury is at all serious we’d have to wait with him. If the win has come at the expense of the horse’s health, I won’t be celebrating it,” winning trainer Josef Váňa senior said after the race.

The fourth qualification race, sponsored by Euro Equus, will be run at Pardubice racecourse on Saturday, September 14. That will be 29 days before the Velka Pardubicka, and it will provide an opportunity for  some horses already qualified for the big race to have a serious preparatory race, and for some other horses to make a late attempt to qualify.

The first three qualification races have shown that plenty of good horses are being prepared by Czech and Slovak trainers for this year’s Velka. We hope that the list of entries, which closes  on September 19th will also include some good horses from abroad.