Sundara impresses at Pardubice

The summer race day at Pardubice was run on yet another hot day at the east Bohemian racecourse. This time, however, the ground was soft after some substantial rain towards the end of the week, and there were some shallow muddy pools on the ploughed fields, particularly behind the copse.

 

The feature race was the Silver Trophy, a classical steeplechase over 4 400 metres, which is normally run at the Velka Pardubicka meeting. There were only five runners, but the good quality more than made up for the limited numbers. Dangerous Gleam, Playstarabad, Sundara and Casper soon went away from Nikan, a full-brother of Nikas. Around the last bend, Sundara went to the front, and it was clear that jockey Marcel Novák was looking round and could see no danger. Sundara won very easily from Casper, Playstarabad and Dangerous Gleam. 6-y-o Sundara, by Galileo, had won the First of May Steeplechase Lysá very impressively, also on soft ground.

 

Trainer Josef Váňa currently has a large number of very good classical steeplechasers in his yard, and it must be a pleasant problem for him to work out where to race them all.

 

Marcel Novák (picture) rode three winners in the latter part of the afternoon, when the sun was at its hottest, finding plenty of energy to ride a strong finish on Soson in the last race. Novák has now ridden 14 winners this season, twice as many as Jan Kratochvíl and Sertash Ferhanov.