The 2013 season at Pardubice begins on Wednesday, May 8th, first race at 1 pm.

According to the Fitmiin/Turf Magazin website, Jiri Kousek has contacted his wife from a hospital in Paris, where he was taken after being attacked.

Jiri Kousek, one of our leading jumps jockeys, has been missing for a week. His car has been found at Auteuil racecourse in Paris, with the keys in it. Josef Vana suggested on TV that jockeys have gone missing for a week before, and have reappeared with nothing worse than a bad headache. We hope it may be so in Jiri's case. If you have any information, please send an e-mail to healey@vc.cvut.cz

You may well enjoy looking at Josef Vana's new website. It is all in Czech, but there are plenty of fine pictures showing the countryside and the facilities at Chyse. A lot of key information can be gathered even without knowledge of Czech. The Vana yard clearly again contains a lot of proven chasers and a lot of younger horses with good potential.  http://www.josef-vana.cz/

Jan Faltejsek, who has been working for leading French trainer Guillaume Macaire in Normandy since the end of October, is heading north this weekend to ride again for George Charlton in the Scottish Grand National. Jan worked for several years in Charlton's stable in Northumberland. He will be on Knockara Beau at Ayr. The horse has plenty of weight, and is said not to like a big field, but Jan is looking forward to joining forces with this good gelding, on which  he finished 7th in the Cheltenham Gold Cup in 2012.