Pardubice racecourse is OK – the 2019 Velka Pardubicka not in doubt

Various stories have appeared in the Czech media claiming that the failure so far to name a main sponsor for the 2019 Velka Pardubicka indicates that the race is under threat. As my earlier article indicates, http://www.dostihovy-svet.cz/en/node/8390, the race is under no threat from lack of sponsorship for this year. Sponsorship will surely be found for the flagship event of the Czech horseracing season. The mass media rightly reported on the problems of finding a sponsor for the 2019 running of the race. However, those who have been gleefully announcing the impending collapse of the VP are spreading fake news.

In recent days, there has been a new scare story about the state of the finishing straight at the racecourse. Czech television recently reported a new “threat” to the 2019 Velka Pardubicka. This, in turn, has been turned into fake news by rumours, Facebook, etc.

The facts seem to be: A minority shareholding in Pardubice racecourse belongs to the Town of Pardubice. The racecourse benefits from a lot of services provided for it, some of them free-of-charge, by the municipal authorities. In return for this, the racecourse area is to some extent a public space, and is used for events and activities aimed at the local people.

One of the activities for the local people involves use of the racecourse in the winter months for outdoor winter sports. This year, from mid December until mid March, the racecourse hosted a large temporary skating rink, which had been purchased by the Town, and was installed on the finishing straight of the racecourse, opposite the Town Stand (Stand D). From the beginning, there was controversy about the skating rink. There were concerns about the fate of the turf track, and there were claims from inside the horseracing community that the racetrack was being damaged.

In the third week of March 2019, the temporary skating rink was removed from the course. Czech Television rightly treated this as a news event.

However, they also claimed – I think wrongly – that their pictures showed the racecourse would not be fit for racing on May 8th, the scheduled start of the Pardubice season, and that the finishing straight for 2019 Velka Pardubicka will be unsafe for racehorses. Stories have been spread that the finishing straight needs to be completely re-sown or re-turfed. Highly-respected racehorse trainer and vet Čestmir Olehla was quoted as saying the finishing straight could not be in safe condition for the Velka in mid October. British trainer Charlie Mann was contacted, and he said he had changed his mind about bringing his horse Like the Sound, which won a small race at Taunton last week, over for this year’s Velka.

This is the kind of sensationalization that is typical of the modern media. The mainstream presents the world as a series of dramatic events, and trolls follow up with their fanciful, often malicious, allegations and theories.

Martin Korba, Pardubice racecourse manager, and Jiří Janda, whose ground staff team has been keeping Pardubice racecourse in good order in recent years, offer a more banal version of what happened. They say that a layer of sand was laid on the racecourse to protect it before the temporary skating rink was laid down. In the third week of March, the skating rink was removed. What the television pictures showed was the layer of sand, which was in the first stages of being removed. The finishing straight, which has been covered up for three months, will need some intensive care: seeding to supplement the grass on the racetrack (which will have had quite a tough winter), decompacting, fertilizer, aeration. Every year, after the harsh Pardubice winter, efforts have to be made to get the grass and the obstacles ready for the new season. Martin Korba and Jiří Janda seem confident that the racecourse will be OK for May 8th, and that it will be fine on October 13th for Velka Pardubicka day.

Having read this, please look at the item shown Czech Television channel 24:  https://ct24.ceskatelevize.cz/regiony/2766473-zavodiste-velke-pardubicke-je-ve-spatnem-stavu-konim-hrozi-nebezpeci-nekteri-jezdci?fbclid=IwAR29U-1E0ywlkzBTncQfta4B_8Yu58FAl9JCTUpVg9vRQk-I46hLSwCXoME

The following item, from www.equitv.cz shows four-a-side polo being played on the temporary skating rink. You may recognize Brad Rainford-Blackett refereeing the game:

http://www.equitv.cz/video/tv-zpravodajstvi-premierovy-turnaj-taxis-snow-polo-vyhrali-madari.html

Martin Korba has reported that 22 000 people went to the skating rink at Pardubice racecourse in the winter months. To have so many visitors to the course in the winter months, and to have the rink on top of the finishing straight, with polo ponies charging round on it, may not be what racehorse owners, trainers and riders will find ideal. However, the stories about the racecourse being recklessly damaged by its own management and by municipal politicians seem to deserve to be categorized as fake news.   

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Photo by Petr Guth. Tzigane du Berlais, ridden by Jan Faltejsek, winning the 2108 Velka Pardubicka.