The meeting at Pardubice on August 24th, on a mildly warm afternoon and on good-to-firm ground, featured the appearance of Josef Vana senior, on triple Velka Pardubicka winner, Tiumen, and also the VP warm-up races of Orphee des Blins and Trezor.

Orphee des Blins, ridden by Jan Faltejsek, made the pace in her race, leading all the way round, except when she was headed at the Irish Bank, which was taken "the wrong way round" in this race. She also hesitated at the Irish Bank in the Velka last October. On both occasions, this was the only fault in her jumping. Orphee des Blins won very comfortably this time, and will be very strongly fancied on October 13th. Tiumen ran along in midfield until he hit the 5th from home quite hard, and Josef Vana was catapulted off. Fortunately he stood up and signalled that he was all right before the others came to the second from home, and we were able to concentrate on the finish, in which Orphee des Blins held off Amaragon quite easily. Josef Vana was winded and a bit shaken, no doubt more so than a younger man might have been, but he appeared to be unhurt.

In the VP qualification race, Bremen Place made the pace, as expected, and led the field round until they approached the fourth from home, after which he faded right away. The most favoured contenders, Trezor and Budapest, were never far behind. After the fourth from home, Broker (Orphee des Blins' stablemate) went into the lead. He led to the last fence, but Trezor had quite a lot in hand, and won comfortably. Broker ran a very good race to finish second, with Budapest finishing third.

Trezor was ridden by Josef Bartos, who will ride him on October 13th. Trezor has now won two of the four VP qualification races in both 2012 and 2013. He and Orphee des Blins have both impressed enormously again this year, and it seems unnecessary to look beyond the two of them for this year's Velka Pardubicka winner. Of course, Tiumen and Josef Vana should also not be ignored, and Budapest too. And some of the foreign entries have good records.      

Marcel Novak rode three winners in the afternoon. Dusan Andres had two winners, and went to the head of our jumps jockeys' championship. However, his desperately poor riding in the finishing straight has cost him the championship several times in the past, and may well allow one of our more stylish riders to outride him again in September and October.