Runners and riders for the 131^st Velka Pardubicka were finalized on October 1^st. The race will be run on Sunday, October 10^th, at 3.45 p.m. All 19 entered horses were declared to run.

An introduction to each of the declared runners and riders

1.    

9-y-o Vanesse is a French-bred mare, the only mare in the race. She has only recently arrived in the Czech Republic from France, and is now trained here by Pavel Vítek. This will be Vanesse’s first race in the Czech Republic. In her 4 runs in 2021, all in France, she has fallen twice, been pulled up once, and finished 7^th at Lion d’Angers, but in 2020 she won a crosscountry race at Craon. French jockey Jordan Duchene rode Chicname de Cotte in the VP in 2019, finishing 3^rd, not far behind Theophilos. Vanesse is an unknown quantity, and is in for a culture shock on Sunday.

2.    

7-y-o Evžen has won 8 of his 10 runs at Pardubice, and has proven that he is autumn horse by winning high category crosscountry chases on Velka Pardubice day: as a 4-y-o in the Czech Steeplechase Association Stakes; as a 5-y-o in the Vltava Stakes; and as a 6-y-o in the Labe Stakes (5 200 metres). He has run twice in 2021. He finished last in the May qualification race, which was won by No Time To Lose, and then he won the June qualification race. His jockey, Jaroslav Myška, has been one of our top jockeys for the last twenty years. He has often finished in the prizemoney for the Velka, but has not yet won the race. Evžen is trained by the jockey’s wife, Štěpánka Myšková. Evžen will be among the favourites for this year’s VP. Evžen has all credentials for winning the VP one day, perhaps repeatedly, and may well be ready to start winning this year.

3.    

8-y-o Kaiserwalzer failed to get round in this year’s August qualification race, but then won the September qualification race from Theophilos and Mahé King. That was his best performance so far, but 2019 VP winner Theophilos did not do much on that occasion. In June, Kaiserwalzer ran in a Category I crosscountry chase over 3 300 metres at Pardubice, finishing 4^th in a close finish in the race won by Dajuka. Kaiserwalzer is trained in Slovakia by Jaroslav Brečka, who trained and rode Quirinus, winner of the VP in 1992 and a contestant in the Aintree Grand National in 1993. Kaiserwalzer will be ridden by Patrick Mullins, son of Willie Mullins. He is the supreme champion amateur rider in Ireland. He has not ridden at Pardubice before. Kaiserwalzer’s win in the qualification race suggests that he is not to be ignored, but prior to that he had won only once in 20 races over fences.

4.    

9-y-o Casper finished 6^th in the VP in 2020. This year, he finished 5^th at Wissembourg, in France, early in May. Then he finished 3^rd, well beaten, behind No Time To Lose in the May qualification race at Pardubice. His most recent run was in September at Pardubice, when he finished 4^th behind Sacamiro in a Category II race. His two races at Pardubice this year were both against strong opposition, and some good horses have finished behind him. Daniel Vyhnálek is a young rider (by Czech standards) who has broken through in the last three seasons. He has ridden 36 winners on the flat and 8 winners over fences, and he deserves this ride on Casper. Casper might be good enough to get into the VP prizemoney again this year (there is prizemoney down to 7^th place).

5.    

11-y-o Theophilos won the Velka Pardubicka in 2019, and then won the 1^st VP qualification race in 2020, which was run early in July. In 2017 and again in 2018, he won the First of May steeplechase at Lysá nad Labem. However, his performances have been quite inconsistent. He was well beaten into 9th place in VP 2020. He finished 5th in the May qualification race this year, but only about 6 lenths behind No Time to Lose. His 2nd place in the September 2021 qualification race, behind Kaiserwalzer, was unimpressive. He is trained by Josef Váňa, snr., whose wife Pavla psyches the horse up. He is ridden by Josef Bartoš, who rode Theophilos to victory in the VP and also won the VP on Decent Fellow in 2006. Bartoš is well established as a top steeplechase jockey who has won races all over continental Europe. He is the reigning champion jockey over fences in Italy, where he rides mainly horses trained by Josef Váňa jnr. He has recently won the top steeplechase in Italy (the Gran Premio at Merano) and the top steeplechase in Poland (the Wielka Wroclawska), which would go nicely with a win in the Velka Pardubicka. With the Váňa family, Josef Bartoš, his enthusiastic syndicate of owners and band of supporters all willing the horse to win, Theophilos can win the Velka again, but only if it is his day, and if he is still at his best.

6.    

10-y-o Talent finished in 4^th place in VP 2020, not far behind Hegnus, Player and Vandual, and 7^th in the VP in 2019. He won VP qualification races in May 2018 and in September 2019. However, his performances in 2021 have been disappointing. He finished 8^th, quite a long way behind No Time To Lose, in the May VP qualification race. Then he finished 3^rd of 5 at Merano in June, and most recently at Pardubice in September he finished 5^th behind Sacamiro in a Category II race. Talent is trained near Pardubice racecourse by Hana Kabelková. He will be ridden by Pavel Složil, a young rider by Czech standards, and is one of the Czech jockeys who is in demand to commute frequently to ride in Italy. Talent has always been a well-named horse, and is one of several horses that might even win the race on Sunday if all goes well for him. 

7.    

8-y-o Dulcar de Sivola finished 9th in VP 2020 and 11th in VP 2019. In his two races in 2021, he has finished 12th in the May VP qualification race and most recently at Pardubice in September he finished 6th behind Sacamiro in a Category II race, behind Casper and Talent, among others. He will be ridden by Petr Tůma, who has been riding for 23 years without quite breaking through. Trainer Stanislav Kovář trained 2015 VP winner Ribelino (awarded the race after the disqualification of Nikas). Dulcar de Sivola can get round the course, but more of the finishers will be ahead of him than behind him.

8.    

7-y-o Mr Spex won the Category II race for 5-y-o crosscountry chasers on VP day 2019. Since then, he has not progressed. In 2021, he has run twice, finishing 7^th in the May VP qualification race and again 7^th in the August qualification race. He will be ridden by Jan Kratochvíl, who won the VP on No Time To Lose in 2017. Jan Kratochvíl frequently commutes to ride in Italy, very successfully. Mr Spex is owned by Lokotrans and trained by Luboš Urbánek. Mr Spex seems unlikely to finish near the front of the field in the VP.

9.    

9-y-o Player won the National Listed race for 5-y-os on VP day at Pardubice in 2017, and finished 3^rd in the Labe Stakes on VP day in 2018. He finished 3^rd in the May 2019 VP qualification race, behind Hegnus and Tzigane du Berlais. He fell in the VP in 2019. He finished 3rd, not far behind Theophilos and Hegnus in the first VP qualification race in 2020, and finished 2nd behind Hegnus in the VP in 2020. In 2021, he has finished in a close 4th place behind No Time To Lose, Sztorm and Casper in the May qualification, and then 2nd behind Chelmsford at the September meeting at Pardubice. Player is trained by Lenka Kvapilová and will be ridden by

Marcel Novák, who has ridden Player in each of his last 22 races. Marcel Novák was considered a reliable and adequate jockey until he suddenly broke through about five years ago, over the age of 40, and won the Czech jockeys’ championship in 2017, 2018 and 2019. However, he has not had much success in the saddle in 2020 and in 2021 Lenka Kvapilová similarly trained a good number of winners in 2017-2019, but very few in 2020 and 2021. (I understand that they are partners). Marcel has a lot of rides at Wroclaw, but only rarely rides in Italy. Player is one of 3 horses in VP 2021 owned by Nýznerov. The other two are Sztorm and Stretton, which are also quite serious contenders. Player has been running against the best for the last 4 years, and his best results are impressive. He is a contender for VP 2021, and might even win if everything goes well for him.

10. 

13-y-o Hegnus won last year’s Velka. 10 years ago, in 2011, he won the Gold Brooch Stakes, for 3-y-o hurdlers, on Velka Pardubicka day at Pardubice. In 2015, he won the Labe Stakes on VP day, and in 2016 he finished 5^th in the VP, behind Charme Look. In 2018, he was 2^nd behind Tzigane du Berlais in the VP. He won the September qualification race in 2015 and the May qualification race in 2019, beating Tzigane du Berlais and Player. He has won 9 of his 37 races and has finished 2^nd nine times. He would have run and won more if he had not suffered frequent injuries. In 2021, he has run just once, finishing 5^th behind Evžen and Stretton in the June VP qualification race, in which he was not given a hard race. Slovak jockey Lukáš Matuský will be riding Hegnus, on which he won the big race in 2020. He rides regularly at Pardubice and in Slovakia, and is also in demand in Italy and at Wroclaw. Hegnus is trained by Radek Holčák, whose legendary father František this year retired and put Radek in sole charge almost all of their horses at Velké Karlovice. Hegnus has a long and distinguished racing career, but he is now a 13-y-o with a history of unsoundness. If he is still at his best, he is good enough to win the VP again, but this is may be one year too many.

11. 

8-y-o Paris Eiffel has not yet shown any reason why we should expect him to contend for the Velka Pardubicka, this year or in the future. His only win was in May 2019 in a very modest race at Šurany, in Slovakia, and he has not yet finished 2nd in any of his 15 runs. In 2021, he has finished last of 8 in the Petržalka Spring Stakes at Bratislava, a long way behind Kaiserwalzer and Star; then 10th in the May qualification race, behind No Time To Lose and 6  of his rivals in the VP; and most recently he fell in the August VP qualification race for the VP. Paris Eiffel’s Slovak jockey is Martin Cagáň, son of the horse’s trainer. In the Czech Republic and Slovakia, it is important for a rider to reach 50 winners and earn his title as a jockey. In a career going back 25 years, Martin Cagáň has ridden just over 50 winners on the flat and also just over 50 in jumps racing. I think this is his first ride in the VP. Paris Eiffel is an outsider.

12. 

11-y-o Stretton won a Category I race on Velka Pardubicka day in 2015. He has run in 6 VP qualification races and in 3 VPs since then, nearly always getting into the prizemoney (which extends to 7th place in these races), but only once finishing as high as 2nd. His best results have come in the Velka: 3rd place in 2018, behind Tzigane du Berlais and Hegnus; 2nd place in 2019, behind Theophilos, but only 8th in 2020, in a race won by Hegnus. In 2021, he has finished well beaten into 8th place behind Night Moon in a very strong Category III race at Pardubice in May, well beaten into 3rd place by Evžen in the June VP qualification race, and most recently beaten into 8th place behind Sacamiro in a strong Category II race. Stretton is trained by Stanislav Popelka. He is ridden by Jakub Kocman, a relatively young jumps jockey by Czech standards, who is lucky to get such a good ride in the big race.  Stretton is one of 3 horses in the race that is owned by Nýznerov. Stretton’s best chance to win the VP has probably passed, when he on two occasions looked in the finishing straight as if he might go on and win. However, he is clearly an autumn horse, he stays the distance of the VP and he jumps well (he has never failed to get round). Some prizemoney for finishing in the first 7 is again a posssibility.

13. 

10-y-o Star has won 9 of his 29 races. However, 6 of these wins were in flat races, two were over hurdles, and the other was over the classical steeplechase course at Bratislava. The wins have all been in races at Category II level or lower. His crosscountry experience consists of 3 low-category races at Pardubice within the last 15 months, followed by the September 2021 qualification race for the VP. In that race, Star finished 4th of six, beaten by a distance by Kaiserwalzer, Theophilos and Mahé King. Star is trained and will be ridden by Jaroslav Brečka, who won the VP on Quirinus in 1992 and then rode the same horse in the Aintree Grand National in 1993. Star has started training for the VP only recently and late in his life, and it is very likely that this is not the right kind of race for him.

14. 

12-y-o No Time To Lose scored a famous win on muddy ground in VP 2017, and should be considered the best VP winner since Orphée des Blins. In 2018, he finished 1st and 3rd in two of the VP qualifaction races, and 5th in the VP, behind Tzigane du Berlais. In 2019, his only race was in the August VP qualification race, in which he finished 2nd behind Charme Look, which went on the win the VP. He was then off the course for 11 months. He qualified for VP 2020 by finishing 6th behind Lodgian Whistle in the August VP qualification race, but  trailed in last, a distance behind the rest of the field. He had another race in August 2020 at Pardubice, but fell, and then he fell again in the Velka, causing most people to assume that his fine career was over. No Time To Lose has had fitness problems – but thanks to the skills and the care provided by Josef Váňa, snr., his family and his staff, the horse seems to have made a remarkable comeback in 2021. In his two runs, he first won the May qualification race in style, and then comfortably beat our best two-mile crosscountry steeplechasers in a Category I race in September at Pardubice. In both of his races in 2021, No Time To Lose has been ridden by Ondřej Velek. Ondřej Velek spent about 4 years working in Switzerland, but this year he has been riding a lot of good horses in Italy for trainer Josef Váňa, jnr., as well as riding for Josef Váňa, snr. in the Czech Republic, with Josef Bartoš continuing to be the senior jockey for the Váňas. It is expected that Ondřej Velek will be riding for the Váňas for the foreseeable future. He is one of our few youngish jockeys, aged about 30. He has ridden just over 50 winners on the flat and the same number over obstacles, so he is qualified as a jockey for both disciplines, but now he will be concentrating on jumps racing. Josef Váňa, snr. will be aiming to extend his record as the most successful trainer in the history of the VP. No Time To Lose is the favourite for this year’s VP, and both of his two outings this year have been impressive. Old horses usually do not come back as No Time To Lose has – but most horses are not trained by Josef Váňa.

15. 

6-y-o Mahé King appears not to have had as much preparation for the VP as might be expected for a horse trained by Josef Váňa, snr. He is only a 6-y-o, and he has had only six races over the Pardubice crosscountry course. Most of those were low-category races, in which the more challenging Pardubice obstacles are not included. In his only outing in 2018, he won a nice hurdles race at Merano. As a 4-y-o, he won a steeplechase at Lysá and Labem and a crosscountry chase at Pardubice. Then he was off the course for almost two years. In May 2021, he ran in a Category IV crosscountry chase at Pardubice and unseated his rider. In June, he won a Category II crosscountry chase at Pardubice, beating Sacamiro and some other useful horses. His only other race was in the September VP qualification race, in which he finished 3^rd, behind Kaiserwalzer and Theophilos. This is a promising young chaser, with the benefit of being trained and prepared by the great man. He also has the benefit of being ridden by Jan Faltejsek, who has ridden the winner of the VP on 5 occasions – Orphée des Blins three times, plus Charme Look and Tzigane du Berlais. (Tzigane du Berlais is a non-runner this year, because of a serious injury. It is uncertain whether he will be able to race again.) Jan Faltejsek rode Mahé King in one of the horse’s early successes. Jan spent a total of 3 years or more in the UK a few years ago, but got only limited chances to ride in races there. Nevertheless, he did ride Knockara Beau into 6th place in the Cheltenham Gold Cup in 2012. He has commuted from the Czech Republic to ride in Italy, France and elsewhere, more and more frequently and with considerable success, for almost 20 years. Mahé King is definitely considered promising, and he may be a VP contender in future years. This year, however, he is the outsider of the 3 Váňa-trained runners.

16. 

10-y-o Beau Rochelais arrived in the Czech Republic from France in 2019, probably with good reports, as he was purchased by Pegas and trained by Čestmír Olehla, and he ran in VP 2019. He fell in that race, and was off the racecourse for almost two years, before reappearing on the racecourse with a new owner and trainer. He ran in the August qualification race for the VP, and was tailed off and pulled up. He then ran in the September qualification race and finished 6th and last, a very long way behind Kaiserwalzer. His rider Adam Čmiel has gradually improved thanks to some quite good opportunities to ride for trainer Radek Holčák, and has now ridden 28 winners over fences in the last 12 years. It is understandable that a small trainer and a new owner want to have a runner in the VP, but this horse does not seem to be up to it, and ideally Beau Rochelais would be withdrawn from the race.

17. 

12-y-o Sztorm has won 8 of his 42 races, but none of his 8 races at Pardubice. His biggest successes have been at Wroclaw where, in 2018, he won all his three races, including the Crystal Cup series race and the Wielka Wroclawska, the two biggest steeplechases held in Poland. Wroclaw suits a different kind of horse than Pardubice, but Sztorm’s record at Pardubice is also not bad. It includes 2nd place, behind Charme Look, in the June 2019 VP qualification race, and 10th place behind Theophilos in VP 2019.  In the May 2021 VP qualification race, Sztorm took 2nd place behind No Time To Lose. Sztorm will be ridden by Bulgarian jockey Sertash Ferhanov, who is now based in France. He rode in the Czech Republic for several years, and won our jumps jockeys’ championship in 2018. Sztorm’s owner, Nýznerov

, has 3 runners in this year’s VP, the others being Player and Stretton, and all three horses have a different trainer. Sztorm is trained by Czech-based Polish trainer Greg Wroblewski, who trained 3-time VP winner Orphée des Blins. Sztorm came to crosscounty steeplechasing late in his career, and it is not clear whether the long-distance VP steeplechase is the right race for him.

18. 

10-y-o Lombargini set out as a very modest 3-y-o hurdler in 2014, and started earning a reputation for falling. It was not until 2018 that he began to win Category IV races and Category III races. In 2019, he finished 2nd in the Labe Stakes on VP day, behind Lodgian Whistle. In 2020, he finished 3rd, behind Ange Guardian, in the 2nd VP qualification race. However, he did not go for the VP, running again in the Labe Stakes on VP day and finishing 2nd again, this time behind Evžen. His only run so far in 2021 has been in the August VP qualification race, which he rather unexpectedly won comfortably from Direct Lagrange and Vandual. Lombargini will be ridden by Jan Odložil, whose riding career started very slowly in 2008. In 2016, he began to break through, and this year he is leading our jumps jockeys’ championship at the beginning of October. He rarely rides in Italy, but Wroclaw and Bratislava are on his GPS. Jan Odložil rode Lombargini in his qualification race win, and straightaway agreed with trainer Stanislav Popelka that he would ride the horse on October 10th. Undeniably, Lombargini has morphed from a moderate young horse into a very useful crosscountry chaser with several solid results in the last 2 or 3 years. Congratulations to the horse and to his trainer. However, it is hard to imagine him going on to beat all our best crosscountry chasers in the Velka Pardubicka.

19. 

13-y-o Vandual was a top flat racer in Slovakia long ago, winning the Slovak Charvát St Leger and 3 other races in 2011. He moved on to crosscountry chasing in 2013. He has won 3 of his 24 races over obstacles, but since 2015 he has been running mainly in high-category VP qualification races and in the high-category races on VP day at Pardubice, which are not easy to win. His best results include 3rd place, behind Hegnus in the Labe Stakes on VP day 2015; 4^th place in the May 2016 qualification race, behind Kasim; and 3^rd place in the June VP qualification in 2019, behind Ange Guardian and Sztorm. More recently, he finished 8^th in the 1st qualification race in 2020, behind Theophilos, and then in 2^nd place behind Sottovento, in the 4^th qualification race. He has run three times in the Velka, finishing 8^th in 2018, behind Tzigane du Berlais, 8^th again in 2019, behind Theophilos, and 3^rd in 2020, not far behind Hegnus and Player. In 2021, he has run twice, both times in VP qualifying races. He finished 13^th out of 14 in the May qualification race, behind No Time To Lose, and more recently 3^rd behind Lombargini and Direct Lagrange in the August qualification race. Vandual will be ridden by French jockey Romain Julliot, who rode him into 3rd place in last year’s race. Vandual is trained in Slovakia by Marián Štangel. This horse has not failed to finish any of his 24 races over obstacles. Vandual is a good character, still winning nice prizemoney at the age of 13. He seems to stay well, and might still be able to finish in the top 7 in this year’s VP.