September was, at last, a month with mild weather and reasonable rainfall. Temperatures have reached about 20°C most days, but not much higher. Rain has fallen frequently, but it has been steady rain – not like the very heavy but infrequent storms that we had in summer. The grass is now green, and the going has mainly been good. At the end of the September we are enjoying Indian summer weather, and sunny days are forecast to continue for the foreseeable future.

It is not possible to predict the weather or the going for Velka Pardubicka day yet. We normally have a warmer September and a colder November than in, for example, the UK. Somewhere in October we usually have a sharp reminder that summer is going and winter is coming. It may come before October 12^th, and it may come after October 12^th. Let us hope it will not come on October 12^th. In any case, remember that the grandstands at Pardubice racecourse face north, and can be chilly even on a sunny day.

Plenty of Czech- and Slovak-trained horses are qualified for the Velka Pardubicka, and a maximum field of 25 is quite likely, although there will probably be no runners from Ireland, the UK or France. Most of entries, however, have little chance of winning. The winner, and also several of the placed horses, are likely to come from six horses.

Orphee des Blins, VP winner in 2012 and 2013 has won both of her races this year in style, including the fourth qualification race, in September. The winners of the three other qualification races are also good, tough horses. Nikas won the May qualification race, after finishing second in VP 2013. He has never been a brilliant performer, but he is a consistent trier. In the June qualification race, the winner was Trezor. He has won all the last five qualification races that he has run in, in 2012, 2013 and 2014, but he has disappointed enormously in the last three VPs, so much so that his trainer did not want him to run again this year. The owner has rightly insisted, as Trezor is the second-best horse in the race. After finishing 4^th in VP 2013 and 3^rd in the June qualification race, Kasim won the August qualification race. That is good form. Kasim has a very good chance to get a place on October 12^th. 13-y-o Tiumen and his 61-y-o jockey, Josef Váňa senior, won the VP in 2009, 2010 and 2011. They finished third in 2012, and fell at the last in 2013, when challenging for third place. Can they do it again? It is not impossible. Tiumen’s 7-y-o stable companion, Zarif, finished in a good second place both in the June qualification race, behind Trezor, and in the September qualification race. This makes him the third-best prospect for October 12^th. I might also mention Klaus, which took 3^rd place in VP 2013. He finished 4^th in the May qualification race, but beaten by less than three lengths. His only other race this year was when he won the Category II Summer Crosscountry Chase at the July meeting at Pardubice.

I see no reason to look beyond these six. Horses that have done well in the VP before tend to do well again. If pressed to name a seventh horse, I might suggest Soros. He won the Polish Derby in 2009, and has a good record over hurdles and classical crosscountry courses. He ran quite well to finish third behind Kasim in the August qualification race. The VP is probably not the right race for him, however.

Czech-trained chasers did very well abroad in September. Alpha Two, trained by Josef Váňa senior, won the Gran Premio at Merano, as he had the previous year. Alpha Two is still only seven years old, and has won 11 of his last 16 runners. The horse is Italian-owned, and has run exclusively In Italy, though trained in the Czech Republic.

Jam Taki won the Wielka Wroclawska at Wroclaw, Poland, early in September. The Czech trainers did not send their top horses to Wroclaw, and were able to win very nice prizes with moderately good horses like Jam Taki, owned by Staj Nýznerov, trained by Pavel Poles and ridden by Marcel Novák, and Makléř, which won the Wielka Partynicka, over hurdles.

The same weekend when our horses picked up the prizes at Wroclaw, the new star of Czech jumps racing won the 60th running of the Premio Gran Corso Siepi di Merano, a Graded 1 race of EUR 60 000, which is excellent money in these parts -  the biggest prize of the season in central Europe over hurdles. Five-year-old Brog Deas ran in Ireland until last year, mainly on  the flat, without seeming to be outstanding. However, he immediately impressed here, twice beating Gejzir, one of our very best, over the classical steeplechase course at Pardubice before falling once at Merano and then winning the Premio Gran Corso Siepi. He is owned by MonteNegro (Jiří Posád), whose phenomenal success as a new owner over the past three seasons I have mentioned in previous newsletters. Brog Deas is trained by Radek Holčák

Brog Deas is due to meet Gejzir again in the Silver Trophy at Pardubice on October 12th, over the Pardubice classical steeplechase course. The entries also include Khalshani, which, however has not been running so well this year as in 2013. There has been much talk of Brog Deas being the new Royal Mougins, and he has certainly impressed this season.

No time for flat racing this month – the Velka Pardubicka is coming. Watch this website for further information about the Velka Pardubicka meeting in the coming days.