The three French horses declared for the Velka are the most serious foreign-trained candidates that we have had for a few years. Presumably Virtus d’Estruval is the best of them. He has a good crosscountry racing record in France, including good recent form. His trainer, Guillaume Macaire is a top jumps trainer in France, and he will be ridden by Czech jockey Jan Faltejsek, who spent two years working for Macaire a few years ago. Jan Faltejsek has won 4 of the last 5 VPs, riding Orphée des Blins (2012/2014) and Charme Look (2016). Virtus d’Estruval’s stablemate, Songe d’Estruval, also has a good record, though over shorter distances. His jockey, Colm McCormack, rode in the UK before he went to France quite a few years ago. He works for Macaire, I understand, but does not get a lot of rides. Urgent de Gregaine is trained in France by Emmanuel Clayeux, who is also a major French trainer. This horse won a crosscountry race at Cheltenham in January, off a low weight, which is impressive form. He has been off the course for quite a long time. He will be ridden by Felix de Giles, whose father is a trainer in England. Felix has ridden and won at Pardubice, but not over the full VP course.

Josef Váňa always has a number of serious contenders in the race, and any horse that he runs in the race must be taken very seriously. His VP horses are fully focused on their October job, and if they are not quite good enough, they run in the Labe Stakes or the Vltava Stakes on VP day - if Váňa snr has anything to do with it. Váňa has two jockeys committed to him, not really no. 1 and no. 2 these days. Currently, Josef Váňa, jnr, rides the Váňa horses mainly in Italy, while Jan Kratochvíl commutes between the Czech Republic and Italy. These two are our best young jockeys, and both have already won our jumps jockeys championship more than once. Young Josef is set to win the Italian jockeys championship this year. Josef Bartoš has ridden over 600 winners, and is the most successful Czech jumps jockey of all time. He rode for Váňa for a number of years, regularly being our champion jumps jockey, but now rides basically in Italy, for trainer Paolo Favero, but also freelances all over continental Europe. He has twice won the VP, on Decent Fellow and on Sixteen. No Time to Lose has finished 2nd in two VP qualification races this year, finishing not far behind Zarif in May and not far behind Charme Look in August. We will see how well he likes the extra distance of the VP. He is ridden on Sunday by Jan Kratochvíl. Last year, Kratochvíl rode Ange Guardian into 2nd place in the VP. The horse has not shown much on the course this year, but be in no doubt that the living legend has been working to get the horse at his peak. Josef junior rides this one. Zarif has been in training for the VP for years and years. Josef Bartoš has ridden him in his last 8 races, which have included two wins in qualification races, and 2nd place and 3rd place in the VP itself. Bartoš rides him again today. The other Váňa-trained horse is Power Zar. He won the September qualification race against a very substandard field, and his trainer and his rider said that the horse was out of shape at that time, and needed a diet and some hard work. No doubt, he will be ready to run on Sunday. He will be ridden by Bulgarian rider Sertash Ferhanov, who is in his third season here. He is currently in 2nd position in our jumps jockeys championship. Our top trainers seek out his services, and he has several times gone to ride in Italy and at Wroclaw this year. Good judges have clearly decded that Ferhanov is an up-and-coming rider.   

The best of the Czech-trained horses, on form, however, is Charme Look. He won the VP comfortably race last year. In his two runs this year, he was brought down in the May qualification race, when going well, and then won the August qualification race fairly impressively. His rider from last year, and also in his two runs this year, Jan Faltejsek, has switched to Virtus d’Estruval for this year, and his place has been taken by Marek Stromský, twice disqualified after being first past the post the VP, and once beaten by a nose in the race. 

The other well-fancied Czech-trained runner is Delight My Fire. Almost all of the others have been run sparingly, and have spent the last year (and in many cases several previous years) focused on the second Sunday in October, and learning to deal with the varied obstacles and the ploughed fields of Pardubice. Delight My Fire won the Labe Stakes on VP day last year. Then she won the Velká Slušovická, at Slušovice, and went to Cheltenham and seemed to be going well when she fell 5 from home. Since then, she has run against strong opposition at Milano, Wroclaw, Merano and Wroclaw again, picking up good prizemoney each time. Four weeks ago, she won the Wielka Wroclawska, at Wroclaw. Niklas Lovén has travelled from Sweden for all of these rides, except at Milano. I like the sporting attitude of DMF’s connections. The mare seems to enjoy both travelling and racing.

The three 12-y-os in the race are all hardened warriors. Nikas is inconsistent, but has turned in a lot of good performances over the years, and is considered an 'autumn horse'. He won the 3-y-o hurdles championship on VP day nine years ago. He was first past the post in VP 2015, but was disqualified after failing a drugs test. He finished 2^nd in the VP in 2013. He has won a couple of VP qualification races. His jockey, Lukáš Matuský, is a very competent Slovak rider. Universe of Gracie finished 4^th in VP 2014 and 3^rd in VP 2015, and has won a VP qualification race. He did well to win a Category II race at Pardubice four weeks ago. He will be ridden by veteran Jiří Kousek, a very experienced and competent rider. He used to train Universe of Gracie, so he knows him well! Kasim has finished 4^th and twice in 5^th place in the VP, and has won a couple of VP qualification races. His jockey is Marcel Novák, who is clear in first place in our jockeys’ championship this year.

Pareto has run in the VP three times, without getting into the prizemoney. He has plenty of quite good performances in his record, going back to when he won the 3-y-o hurdles championship on VP day here seven years ago, and even before that he was useful on the flat. However, he does not produce his best at Pardubice. Pavel Složil jnr is a promising young rider.

Ter Mill and Templář are half-brothers. Both are honest triers, but lack a bit of speed and class, and the distance is a bit much for them. Ter Mill, a front-running grey which runs with his nose near the ground, will be a distinctive figure, at least in the earlier stages of the race. Ter Mill is ridden by Jan Odložil, who is enjoying his best season, with 10 winners so far. French rider Kevin Guignon rides Templář. He has ridden at Pardubice before, but not in the VP.

Bridgeur is still a maiden. He ran bravely in the September qualification race, leading all the way round until Power Zar dashed past him in the last 100 metres. However, the competition is much hotter today. He is ridden by Jaroslav Myška, who has been one of our top jumps jockeys for a decade and a half. Myška’s wife trains Bridgeur, so he had accept this ride.

Eldorado, Maugli, Sixtyseven and Val de Guye have been entered presumably because their owners would like to see their horse and their colours appear in this year’s VP. Four riders who would not otherwise have got a ride in the race will also be living the dream, and will have something to tell their grandchildren. However, a field of 20 is larger than ideal. I hope these moderate horses will be kept in the rear, out of the way, and will not interfere with the real race.

The Velka Pardubicka is the eighth race of the afternoon, and it quite often happens that a jockey takes a knock earlier in the day. If possible, they ride in pain in the VP, as Marek Stromský did last year on Nikas. However, there will be some unengaged riders ready to step in, and this year two former winning riders will presumably be hanging around the changing rooms. Dušan Andrés picked up a VP winning ride a decade ago on Sixteen, and would presumably be ready to repeat that on Sunday. Pavel Kašný was awarded the win on Ribelino, in 2015, after the disqualification of Nikas. Both Andrés amd Kašný are transitioning from mainly jockey to mainly trainer, but I think both are fit and would not refuse a last offer to go for glory. Eight-time winning rider Josef Váňa has stated that he has not retired, but that he is not fit enough to ride in the race this year. Nevertheless, he will probably take his kit with him on Sunday, just in case!