This weekend there are race meetings at Pardubice, on Saturday, first race at 1 p.m., and at Slušovice on Sunday, first race at 2 p.m. At Pardubice, all the races are over jumps, at Slušovice all the races are on the flat.

The feature race on Saturday is the second of the four qualification races for the 125^th running of the Velka Pardubicka, which will be run on Sunday, October 11^th. Sixteen horses, headed by Universe of Gracie, completed the course for the first qualification race, and thereby qualified for the big event. This time, there are 19 declared runners, and it seems likely that an extraordinary number of horses will be qualified for the VP at this early stage in the season.

This time, the field contains Trezor, winner of his last five qualification races but a huge disappointment each year in the VP itself. He will be the favourite on Saturday, but other runners will be strongly fancied for the big race in October, especially Al Jaz, which finished a close second to Orphée des Blins last October, and Zarif, which ran extremely well in two of last year’s qualification races and has already won at Pardubice this year. Other serious contenders, on Saturday and in October, include Klaus, Kasim and Peintre Abstrait. Modena, Goscater and Sheron took the first three places at the VP meeting in 2014 in the Labe Prize, which is considered as a preparatory race for future VPs.

The heavy storm on the raceday at Pardubice in mid June caused some damage to the course, especially to the Irish Bank. There has also been more rain since then, so the qualification race is likely to be run on soft ground – not often seen at  Pardubice.