To help you in your uneven contest with Betino, the monopoly bookmaker, here is some information about the jockeys who will ride at Pardubice on Sunday afternoon. Before the rider’s name, if you see the symbol ž, it means that he is a fully qualified jockey, i.e. he has ridden 50 winners over fences; am. means amateur rider, and žk means apprentice.

Legendary jockey

Josef Váňa snr (Váňa 2 Josef) is the legendary Josef Vana, who holds every record for the VP as a jockey and as a trainer, except for being the oldest rider to win the race. At the age of 60, he now has the opportunity to add that last remaining record to his list. This is the greatest personality in world steeplechasing, and a Czech national hero. You are privileged to be able to watch his progress as he aims for his 9th winning ride in the race. Despite his famous list of injuries and his advanced age, he will have got himself into shape for this race. He has already ridden Tiumen to victory in the VP three times, and could well add to this on Sunday.

Our top jockeys

A number of Czech jockeys ride regularly both here and in Italy and are riders of international quality.

Josef Váňa jnr (Váňa 3 Josef) is a good and stylish young rider in his own right, already twice our champion jockey and holder of the record number of wins here in a single season. His father has every right to be proud of him. He rides Budapest, trained by his father, in the VP.

Bartoš 2 Josef was stable jockey for Josef Vana until this year, but is now freelancing and riding quite a lot for top trainer Paolo Favero in Italy.He has been champion jockey a couple of times, and it would have been more if he had had fewer injuries and had spent less time riding in Italy.After riding Sixteen in the VP, with considerable success, for the last 5 years, he will be on second-favourite Trezor on Sunday. This is a very strong combination.

Jan Faltejsek rode for several winters in the UK, at George Charlton’s yard in Northumberland, and in the Czech Republic and Italy every summer.His career took a sharp upward turn 12 months ago, when he won the VP on Orphee des Blins and then went to work in France with top French jumps trainer, Guillaume Macaire. He is already well established as a leading jumps jockey in France. He is the favourite of this website, and he will be looking forward to riding the favourite, the phenomenal Orphee des Blins, again.

Jaroslav Myška has won our jockeys’ championship several times, and is sought after by any Czech trainer needing a rider for a good horse – he will partner Klaus on Sunday.

Dušan Andrés

Dušan Andrés may not appear to be a good jockey, but he has had a lot of success in the course of a long career on the flat and over fences. He is the only jockey in the recent era to have ridden the winner of both the Czech Derby and the Velka Pardubicka. He has finished in every position from 1st to 7th in the VP. The best he can hope for this year, on Nikas, is 8th place.

The other veterans

Other veteran riders who are safe pairs of hands are Pavel Kašný, who was once our champion jockey back in the twentieth century – he rides rank outsider Speranza in the VP; Marek Stromský, who was first past the post on in the VP on Amant Gris, but was disqualified for missing a marker – he rides Status Quo, another rank outsider in the VP; and Jaroslav Brečka, a Slovak jockey who rode Quirinus to victory in the VP in 1992 – he rides Bodyguard, another rank outsider.

Marcel Novák is also a safe pair of hands, though not quite yet in the veteran age group. He challenged for our jockeys’championship last year. He rides Kasim in the VP, not the worst of the no-hopers.

Younger generation of jockeys

In the good young jockey category, there is really only Josef Vana jnr. However, Ondřej Velek has been shaping up well, both on the flat and over fences, in the last two or three seasons. He rides Tomis in the VP – this has been a consistent horse for many seasons, and has even turned in some good performances, mainly a few years ago. This may be the best of the no-hopers.

Slovak-based Lukáš Matuský is below the average age of our jumps jockeys. He started riding plenty of winners in Slovakia 3 or 4 years ago. He has only this year begun winning races at Pardubice. He rides Peintre Abstrait in the VP, yet another rank outsider.

Others

Thomas Boyer is a French jockey who rode in Italy before he came to work for trainer Greg Wroblewski here a bit more than a year ago. He is having a good year as stable jockey. In the VP, he rides the stable’s second choice, Broker. This is a 6-y-o who missed last year, after showing some promise before that. His only good performance in 5 runs this year was a very promising 2nd place in the August qualification race. This could be a VP horse one day, but probably not yet.

Josef Sovka rides on the flat and over jumps. His career started very slowly, but has gradually accelerated over the last 4 years. This year he is a contender for the jockeys’ championship, and a sought-after rider – well done Josef. He will be on Al Jaz on Sunday. Some people think this is an interesting outsider, but I do not see why.

Riders not engaged in the VP

Jiří Kousek, who rides mainly in Italy, does not have a ride in the VP, but will surely be sought out if a replacement rider is needed for one of the horses, as he counts as one of our top 10 jockeys.

Michal Köhl is an experienced and competent jockey He too does not have a ride in the VP, but could pick one up if a replacement jockey is needed.

Martin Cagáň is a Slovak rider with quite a good record on the flat and over fences, who does not often get as far west as Pardubice. He does not have a ride in the VP.

Matej Rigo’s career developed slowly, in Slovakia, until last year. Then he started getting a lot of rides, on the flat and over jumps for Moravian trainer FrantišekHolčák, and some good numbers of winners.

Some young riders have been engaged to ride in the side races, but not in the VP. Michal Kubík and Jan Kratochvíl both work in Josef Vana’s yard, learning their craft and getting a fair number of hard knocks as well as rides on horses that young Josef does not want to ride. Jakub Kocman worked in George Charlton’s yard in Northumberland for a couple of winters. In the Czech Republic, he gets a fair number of rides, but mainly on poor horses. Jan Derych also gets plenty of bad rides and not many wins.

Martin Liška works at the Wroblewski yard. In a long career, he has never got the chance to ride good horses, though he did finish 4th in the VP in 2006, on Icare du Renom.

František Kovačík has ridden only a couple of winners since 2000, including one at the most recent meeting at Pardubice. He rides mainly horses that he trains himself.

Luboš Urbánek is a veteran who gained his jockey status (rider of 50 winners) after a long, slow process. He is on a long losing sequence at the moment.

Pavel Peprna is an amateur rider who was quite successful at the end of the 20th century, but has ridden less and less in the 21st century.

Six jockeys who have been flown in

Six jockeys from abroad have been brought in specially for the Velka Pardubicka.

Liam Treadwell (UK) impressed with his riding and his careful preparation when he rode Trezor to two wins in two qualification races here last year. However, Trezor’s trainer criticized his ride in the VP last year, and the ride has gone to Josef Bartos this year. Nevertheless, Sešlost’s trainer and many others rated what Liam did last year. He rode Sešlost on VP day in 2012. Unortunately, the mare really does not have much chance.

Sam Waley-Cohen is famous as a top amateur rider in the UK who rode Long Run to victory in the Cheltenham Gold Cup, and also as a friend and mentor to William and Kate. I welcome him very warmly. However, I doubt whether Zest for Life is good enough to beat the Czech horses on their own racecourse.

Irish jockey Richard McLernon is riding in the VP for the second time. Last year, he did well to get Doctor Pat home in 7th place. This year, he rides Mount Sion, an unknown quantity as far as I am concerned.

I understand that Freddie Mitchell is an Australian amateur rider. He rides the moderate Czech-trained Cantridara. I hope they get round safely.

Martin Ferris rides 13-y-o Freneys Well. I do not know much about either of these two.

French jockey Alain de Chitray rides Shalimar Fromentro. This horse has been running in continental crosscountry races, picking up a few of the points that have placed trainer Nick Williams in top place in the trainers’ championship in the Crystal Cup international crosscountry series.

Marc-Antoine Dragon rides Tropic de Brion. This horse was trained in France by Patrice Quinton when he was entered, and has run only in France this year. However, he seems to have been transferred to Pavel Vitek’s yard in the Czech Republic, but is to be ridden by a French jockey.