When I started thinking about this final newsletter of 2013, I decided to avoid making a review of the past year and making predictions about the future. After all, there will be six newsletters in the five-month winter period between the end of the 2013 Czech horseracing season and the beginning of the 2014 season. During this period, there is generally not much happening. I need to be careful not to concentrate all the looking back into a single end-of-year newsletter.

In spite of the Indian summer conditions in the Czech Republic, the coming weekend will mark more or less the end of our horseracing season, with only a single meeting to be run in November (at Kolesa, on Saturday November 9th).

The three meetings this weekend will be at Pardubice, on Saturday; at Prague Velka Chuchle, on Sunday, and at Slusovice on Monday, which is a state holiday. Please note that the first race at each of these meetings will be at midday.

Velka Pardubicka day - Best Turned Out horses

(translation of an article in the Czech language pages of Dostihovy Svet, written by Kateřina Jupová) 

Although only 6 of the 20 runners got round in the 2013 Velka Pardubicka can, there can be no doubt that the best horse won the race, nor that several of the non-finishers would have finished between Orphee des Blins and second-placed Nikas, if misfortune had not befallen them.

"I’ve learnt that the time to celebrate is after the race"

For the second year in succession, Orphee des Blins won the Velka Pardubicka brilliantly and very easily. As far as she was concerned, the race went very much the way it went 12 months earlier. Again, she went straight into the lead, and jumped every fence perfectly, again with the exception of the Irish Bank, where she was a bit hesitant.

Shalimar Fromentro had a minor mishap on the course at Pardubice, losing a plate when trying out the ploughed fields. It is hoped that the vet will pass him fit to run in the Velka Pardubicka.

There was steady rain in Pardubice on Friday evening, and it began to rain again on Saturday evening. On Saturday afternoon, the going on the crosscountry course was good/good to soft. The ploughed fields appeared not to be deep.