The first of the four qualification races for the 2015 Velka Pardubicka was run on good ground at Pardubice racecourse on May 23rd. There were 18 runners. Trezor, winner of 5 VP qualification races was unable to run, due to problems with shoeing him. There were 16 finishers, which all thus qualify for the VP, which will be run on Sunday, October 11th. Universe of Gracie, which finished 4th in last year’s VP, ridden by Jan Faltejsek, went to the front from the beginning of the race, and was only briefly headed on the last bend. Al Jaz, which finished a very impressive 2nd in last year’s VP, came down at the Popkovice Turn. Modena, winner of the Labe Prize on VP day in 2014, was the other faller. Nikas lost ground with a big mistake, and, among the fancied runners, only Universe of Gracie was in contention with 4 fences to go. In the run-in, only Ribelino was able to put in a challenge, finishing 1½ lengths behind Universe, with Ter Mill 6 lengths further way in third place. The other finishers were, in order, Templař, Amaragon, Nebrius, Pareto, Cardam, Moula, Gauner Danon and Nikas, with Lorain, Wild Danger, Kindly Boy, Valldemoso and Mlýn tailed off.  German-bred Universe of Gracie is owned by BORS, Breclav and is trained by Jiří Kousek. Jan Faltejsek said that the horse gave him an armchair ride. This was the third of his four winners in the course of the afternoon. He won the first two races on Northerly Wind and on Khalshani, for owner Jiří Charvát and trainer Pavel Tůma, and in the last race he was on Salient of Gracie, owned by BORS, Breclav and trained by Jiří Kousek. The next meeting at Pardubice is this Saturday, May 30th, first race at 1 p.m. Over 100 runners have been declared for the eight races. The main event is the May Prize, 4 500 metres, crosscountry, which has attracted a good field, including several entries for the VP: Hinton, Peintre Abstrait, Sokol, Zarif, Zugor. With the retirement of Orphée des Blins and Tiumen after last year’s race, there will be no past winners in the VP this year. Universe of Gracie and Ribelino (which had won the First of May Steeplechase at Lysa earlier in the month) showed some good form in the qualification race, but many more contenders will emerge before October.