The meeting at Pardubice on Sunday, July 28th has attracted fields of ten and more for eight of the nine races, all of them over obstacles, and a field of seven for the other race. Not only the size but also the good quality of the fields makes this new July meeting at Pardubice a very interesting prospect.
The main event is the second of the three races in the Josef Vana Summer Cup series, 4400 metres, classical steeplechase, with prizemoney of one million crowns. Twelve horses are entered, five of them trained by Josef Vana. Vana’s best is probably Budapest, three times placed in the Gran Premio at Merano, the richest race in central Europe. The favourite will be Khalshani, impressive winner this season of the Pardubice Gold Cup and also of the first race in the Josef Vana Cup series, run at Karlovy Vary. Wroblewski-trained Dorotka won her two previous races over fences with very great ease, but this will be a new class of opposition. The same trainer’s Makler, and also Vana-trained Soros and Maltamo should make this a tough race to win.
Earlier in the afternoon, 2012 Velka Pardubicka winner Orphee des Blins runs in a Category III race over 4500 metres, for which she will be a very short-priced favourite.
The extended period of warm weather is forecast to continue until the weekend. If there is no thunderstorm in Pardubice in the course of the week, the irrigation system will be put to a thorough test.
The first race is at 12.45 pm, on Sunday. This meeting was originally scheduled for the previous day, but it will indeed be run on Sunday.