Last Saturday’s meeting at Pardubice attracted a small crowd on a very hot afternoon. The thunderstorms that were forecast held off until after the fifth race.

The start of the sixth race, a crosscountry chase, was delayed. It was decided to run the race over the classical steeplechase course, as several of the crosscountry obstacles were waterlogged. However, four of the nine entries were withdrawn from the race. One of the remaining five, one slipped up on the way to the start, and brought down one of the others, but eventually horses and riders were re-united, and the race got under way half an hour late. Fortunately, they got round safely enough.

After this race, it rained really heavily, but an effort was made to run the Pardubice Gold Cup. The runners were already out on the course when, quite rightly, the meeting was abandoned.

Nineteen years ago, there was a comparable thunderstorm on Gold Cup day at Pardubice racecourse, though on that occasion the horses and riders took shelter in the copse and the race was run.

On Saturday, Pardubice racecourse was exposed to the kind of heavy rainfall that would have been very welcome 48 hours earlier.

Preparations of the course for the meeting on Saturday, June 27^th, first race at 1 p.m., are likely to benefit from this thorough soaking.