Orphee des Blins, trained by Greg Wroblewski at Zhor, near Jihlava in the Czech Moravian highlands, is one of 21 entries for the

Jiri Chaloupka, winning jockey on Legenda in the Velka Pardubicka in 1979, died in a car accident on November 7th, a few days short of his 61st birthday.

Apart from his own achievements as a jockey and as a racehorse trainer, Jiri Chaloupka was part of the Chaloupka dynasty. His brother, Vaclav, rode the winner of the Velka Pardubicka four times, on Korok (3 times) and on Vaclav. This is the only case of two brothers winning the Velka Pardubicka. His son, Jiri jnr., has been one of our leading flat jockeys since he rode the winner of the Czech St Leger as a 17-year-old in 1997.

Many, though not all, of the roads taken by Czech horses running in the near future will lead to Rome. A project set up by Roma Capannelle racecourse in an attempt to lure Czech participants for the local jumps racing season has attracted considerable interest. It is sure that a group of Czech horses will leave for Italy in the coming days in an effort to follow in the footsteps of, for example, Lutin des Bordes, [winner of several good races in Italy in recent years]. The exact numbers are still in the air.

(translated from the Slusovice racecourse website)

Will Velka Pardubicka winner  Orphee des Blins run again this year, or won’t she?  This is the question that trainer Grzegorz Witold Wroblewski must find the right answer to. There is interest abroad in the heroine of the Velka Pardubicka, and a race at Cheltenham is still on the cards. After the renewal of the crosscountry racing tradition at Cheltenham, this is a big challenge for Czech horses.  “Entries for Cheltenham do not have to be made until November 9th, so we must make up our minds by then,” the mare’s owner Jiří Trávníček said at Pardubice.

Fresh from his triumph on Orphee des Blins in the Velka Pardubicka, Jan Faltejsek has left for France, where he is working for top jumps trainer Guillaume Macaire. He has already ridden his first winner for Macaire, on a horse called Rosy Mill at Paray le Monial.  

I normally include something in these newsletters about the weather conditions in the past month. It is interesting how easy it is to give a post-hoc weather report, while predicting the weather in advance remains a very imprecise art. We might say the same thing about picking the winners of horse races.  The weather forecasts for the Velka Pardubicka weekend were again well wide of the mark, and again excessively pessimistic. This has been the case in several recent years, when Velka Pardubicka day has turned out much better than had been predicted.

Turf Praha, organisers of racing at Prague Velka Chuchle, have announced that the meeting called off on October 28th will not be rearranged. The Czech horseracing season is therefore over, and Jaromir Safar retains his flat jockeys' championship.  

Prague Velka Chuchle racecourse manager Petr Drahos has informed the Czech-language pages of Dostihovy Svet that a decision will be announced on Monday about rearranging the meeting at Velka Chuchle that had to be called off because of the snowbound conditions at the course on October 28th. The weather forecast indicates that it should be possible to run the races next weekend, but it is also necessary to get the consent of sponsors and the Jockey Club.   

The final day of the horse racing season at Prague Velka Chuchle has been cancelled due to the unfit state of the racecourse. Five centimetres of snow fell on Saturday, and has not cleared this morning. An announcement will be made later about whether and when the meeting can be rearranged.