The first of the nine race days announced for Pardubice in the 2017 season was held on the Monday, May 8^th Liberation Day public holiday. The course appeared to be in good order, though the desertification of the ploughed fields seems - visually, from a distance - to be progressing quite rapidly. This is presumably because the soil is turned over several times each year, and nothing is nowadays allowed to grow roots there.

A reasonable amount of rain had fallen recently at the racecourse, so the going was 4.0 – good. Although plenty of our better chasers have been running with considerable success in races abroad in the early months of 2017, there had been few opportunities for lower-quality horses to run in the Czech Republic before May 8^th. There has been some talk about installing artificial fences at Pardubice, presumably on the oval-track steeplechase course. This could enable classical steeplechases and hurdles races to be run at Pardubice in the early part of our season, before the typically hot and dry summer sets in at Pardubice racecourse.

Ninety-seven horses turned out for the eight races, and there was competitive racing. No jockey or trainer had more than one winner, not even Josef Vána, whose success rate, both in Italy andin the Czech Republic, has been phenomenal this year. There were two Category I races. In the Irish Ambassador’s Gold Cup Steeplechase supported by EASYFIX, over 3 900 metres, Polish-trained Trim took a long lead, and was still well away from the rest of the field when he crashed into the third from home. Mustamir, trained by František Holčák and ridden by Marek Stromský,then went on to win comfortably. In the Category I Town of Pardubice Stakes - Opening Crosscountry Steeplechase, over 4 500 metres, Wild Danger, trained by Josef Vána and ridden by our champion jumps jockey, Jan Kratochvíl, also won comfortably.

There was quite a good crowd, attracted by bright weather early in the day - which deteriorated into an overcast late afternoon. In the past, we common people could buy good wine and not bad food at reasonable prices at Pardubice racecourse. This year, it seems, all the rights to sell food and drinks have been assigned to a single company, and all they offered was disgusting sausages, wine from boxes, and bad coffee. There was beer, of course, and very reasonably priced. Bad beer is scarcely obtainable in the Czech Republic. This kind of catering seems to be profitable at Czech ice-hockey stadiums. Perhaps the catering company is right: the working man is too stupid to notice or care that his stomach is being damaged and he is being ripped off.

As far as I know, fine wines and decent food were served to the refined folk up there in the private boxes.