Racing took place at Pardubice on Sunday, July 28th, on a day when it was forecast that we would have the highest temperatures ever recorded in the Czech Republic. It was decided a few days in advance to bring the first race forward to 8 in the morning! Your correspondent had suffered a slight heatstroke a couple of days earlier, and concluded it would be much better not to go to Pardubice. Instead, he took the opportunity to watch most of the races on the sports channel of Czech Television, and then again from the video, and to read the reports and interviews, and see the pictures, in the Czech language version of Dostihovy Svet.

Dr Jiri Janda and his team appeared to have done their very best to have the racecourse in reasonably raceable condition, though it really is not possible to water the entire hurdles and classical steeplechase courses, and the various crosscountry routes.

A limited number of declared runners did not appear, including 2012 Velka Pardubicka winner, Orphee des Blins. The main race of the day was  the second in the three-race Josef Vana Summer Cup series. There were 10 runners, five of them trained by Josef Vana. Olehla-trained Khalshani, winner of the Gold Cup at Pardubice this season, and also winner of the first race in the Josef Vana series, was a hot favourite, but Vana himself and Greg Wroblewski each had more than one horse with a chance in the race.

At the beginning, there was a gentle pace, made by Turf Finch. Isalik fell and brought down Sixtyseven in nasty-looking carambole at the end of the far straight on the first circuit. Both riders, Lukas Matusky and Jan Kratochvil, were hurt and missed the rest of the morning’s races. I hope Jan Kratochvil is OK – he was taken away on a stretcher. After the third from home, Dorotka took the lead, and it briefly looked as if she or her stablemate Makler would win. Khalshani appeared to have a lot to do. However, the ultimate winner was a horse that had been held back all the way round and was still only 6^th at the last fence. Soros jumped the last well, gaining a few lengths on Khalshani, while Makler’s rider had damaged his chances by losing his whip. Soros got home by one length from Khalshani, with Makler ¾ of a length behind in third place.

Soros won the Polish Derby in 2009, and has won good races over fences, including three Category I races at Lysa nad Labem. However, he had failed to win any of his four earlier races this season. He is owned by Joly, trained by Josef Vana, and was ridden by Marek Stromsky.

The morning meeting was a triumph for trainer Jan Blecha and his rider, Josef Sovka, who had three winners in the minor races.

Josef Bartos, who returned from injury with a winner at Kolesa last Sunday, had a fall in the first race and aggravated his recent injury. He tried to ride in the second race, but was clearly in pain and had to pull his horse up. He then missed the rest of the morning’s races. Jaroslav Myska, who had been injured on the same day as Josef Bartos, and had also come back with a winner at Kolesa last Sunday, decided to ride only three horses trained by Stepanka Sedlackova, as his broken elbow is not yet fully healed. Martina Ruzickova had nominated herself to make another comeback and ride Rubin in the 12.10 race, but I am glad to note that the horse was scratched.