The first of the three Josef Vana Summer Cup classical steeplechases, each with prize money of just over CzK 1 million (EUR 40 000), will be run at Karlovy Vary on Sunday, June 30^th. Karlovy Vary is Josef Vana’s home racecourse, and there can be no doubt that he wants to win as much as possible of the million crowns that he has persuaded sponsors to put up. To this end, he has declared six runners, each with a different owner. The field of 16 also includes several international contenders. Paolo Favero is bringing three horses from Italy, Effie Schnakenberg and Pavel Vovcenko are each bringing horses from Germany, and Jaroslav Brecka is bringing a horse from Slovakia. It is a long time since a race in the Czech Republic attracted so many good runners from abroad.

Josef Vana has done well to find six riders for his horses. His son, Josef junior, seems not to be available (riding for his father at Merano), and Josef Bartos and Jaroslav Myska are both injured (neither is retained by Vana, but he would surely have offered a choice of the best ride to either of them). The six Vana runners, in approximate order of merit, are Taro (Jan Korpas), Priory Bay (Pavel Kasny), Mazhilis (Dusan Andres), Alberto (Josef Sovka), Age of Luck (Michal Kubik), and SixtySeven (Jan Kratochvil).

Josef Bartos went for more X-rays in Plzen after travelling back from Italy, and in addition to the broken ribs, a fractured shoulder blade and a couple of displaced vertebrae were discovered, resulting from a fall at Merano when his horse fell on top of him. We wish him a quick and complete recovery, and an end to his succession of quite bad injuries over the last 5 years or so.