Every year, the second Sunday in October is the absolute high point of the Czech cross-country steeplechasing season. For most of the racing community, and certainly for the general public, not even the Czech Derby can compete in prestige with the Velka Pardubicka.

The crowd at Pardubice on October 12^th, will be several times larger than at any other race day in the Czech season. The money taken for tickets will be perhaps twenty times more than on any other race day, and the tote and bookmakers will open several times more outlets than usual. The prize money for the main race will be seven times more than for any other steeplechase in the Czech calendar.

The Velka Pardubicka is the jewel in the crown of Czech racing. It traces its history back to 1874, and this will be the 124th running. The Velka Pardubicka was Central Europe’s answer to the Velka Liverpoolska, as the Grand National is called in Czech. The Czech version was designed to be a little longer and a little tougher than the English race. The Grand National is run on an oval track, and many of the fences are man-made. The Velka Pardubicka, on the other hand, has remained much more like a 19^th century cross-country steeplechase. The horses zigzag across and through the course, twice disappearing behind a copse and periodically running across ploughed land, and they must deal with an Irish bank, a fence followed by a 90-degree turn, a couple of double fences, several water jumps, a drop on the turn, and a brick wall. And, of course, the famous fence No. 4: the Taxis jump. The Taxis is only ever jumped in the Velka Pardubicka, and is big and wide, with a ditch on the far side.

The Velka Pardubicka used to be known, especially in Britain and in the former Soviet Union, as an extreme event: the longest, the toughest and the most dangerous. Horses had fallen and been remounted as many as six times before struggling over the finishing line. There was even at one time a rule that anyone could remount a riderless horse, and ride on. Young men would wait on the far side of the Taxis, dreaming of grabbing a loose horse and riding it to glorious victory. When Chris Collins won the race in 1971 on Stephen’s Society, it was a test of nerve and bravery. Less well-prepared daredevil amateur riders put themselves, their horses and the other competitors in considerable danger.

The custodians of a great historic race like the Velka Pardubicka or the Grand National face a dilemma. Excessive dangers to horses, and to riders, draw protests not only from non-racing people, but even from those of us who like steeplechasing best when horses and riders finish the afternoon more or less unhurt. And yet the toughness is a part of the history of this race.

In 1992, Dostihovy spolek, a group of Pardubice citizens who wanted to ensure the future of racing at Pardubice in the difficult years, not only for horse racing, that followed the so-called Velvet Revolution, took over the management of Pardubice racecourse. Their solution to the dilemma has been to work on improving the grass, to trim obstacles that had become overgrown, to make the landing areas less deceptive, and to remove dangerous objects from the course. More recently, a proper irrigation system has been installed. They have also taken measures to eliminate daredevil amateur jockeys and horses that cannot jump.

The changes to the Taxis fence illustrate the process. It had always been a wide fence, with a deep, narrow ditch, or pit, and some rough ground, on the far side. With the years, the fence had become overgrown, and even more fearsome. The drop from the top of the fence to the bottom of the ditch was said to be seventeen feet, and horses that fell in had to be winched out. Now the fence has been trimmed, the ditch is much less deep, and the landing area is well grassed and even. It is still a big and spectacular fence, but a good rider on a good horse, with no interference, should get over it safely.

The extreme length of the race – given as 6 900 metres – has been retained, and every effort has been made to retain its atmosphere and colour. Make no mistake, this is still a very demanding race, especially on a rainy day, when the ploughed fields turn to mud and puddles.

British/Irish horses and riders played a big part in the early years of the race, up to the second world war. Between the wars, German horses and riders often competed and won. In the 1960s and 1970s, some outstanding Russian horses won the race. Some horses and riders competed in the Velka Pardubicka and in the Grand National. Relief and Grifel, for example, ran at Aintree in 1961. Chris Collins won the race on Stephen’s Society in 1971, after which a number of mainly ‘daredevil’ amateur riders, including Charlotte Brew, came over for the race. Charlie Mann rode and trained the only recent British winner, It’s a Snip, in 1995. Without taking anything away from that honest stayer, it would take a considerably faster horse than It’s a Snip to win the race nowadays, and a rider as well prepared as Charlie Mann was. In the years since 1995, some quite good British and Irish horses have come over for the race. Risk of Thunder was probably good enough to have won, but he was up against three-time winner Peruan, and his jockey may not have known the course well enough.

2003 and 2004 winner Registana won race after race at Pardubice and Merano, Italy, in those two seasons, a sequence which only came to an end when she ran out near the end of the Sporting Index Chase at Cheltenham in November 2004.

More recently, another mare, Sixteen, won the race twice, and Tiumen, ridden by Josef Vana, won three years in succession, in 2009, 2010 and 2011, before finishing 3^rd in 2012.

In 2012, the race was won in imposing style by the mare Orphée des Blins, a 55 to 1 outsider, ridden by Jan Faltejsek. Jan gets back to Pardubice, which is his home town, quite a lot, but he has based himself abroad for long periods over several years first in the UK and now in France. He is also quite often invited to ride in Italy. Orphée des Blins blitzed the field again in the Velka in 2013, and will be a very hot favourite to do it again this year. Jan Faltejsek will be on her back again, and she is very likely to become only the second mare ever to be a triple winner of the race.