After the European Jockeys Cup meeting in Prague on September 2^nd, in which most of our top horses took part, there will be no top flat races in the Czech Republic for about three weeks. The weekend of September 9^th and 10^th was set aside for jumps racing.

At Pardubice on the Saturday, the main race was the Euro Equus September qualification race for the Velka Pardubicka. It is rare for this final qualification race to attract a strong or large field, and it was a pity to waste rare good prizemoney on this year’s particularly poor field. 6-y-o Bridgeur set a decent pace, which only three of the ten runners were able to keep up with. The others fell while trailing, or were pulled up, or were distanced but struggled round to fulfil the VP qualification requirements. Vána-trained Power Zar, ridden by Sertash Ferhanov, beat one-paced Bridgeur by a couple of lengths, and Sisi Merble, which has returned to racing this year after more than two years away as a brood mare, finished in a close third place.

It was Power Zar’s second race and first finish after a year off the course. His owner is likely to want him to run in the Velka, but trainer Josef Vána has several better horses in that race. Bridgeur’s jockey, Jaroslav Myska, says that Goscater and Reaper, both trained by his wife, are non-runners in the Velka, but that he will not be pressing Bridgeur’s owner to run the horse in the Velka on Sunday, October 8^th. In one of the other races at Pardubice last Saturday, 12-y-o Universe of Gracie won handily. He is now trained by Stanslav Popelka and was ridden by Marek Stromský. He had not done much since finishing 3^rd in the VP in 2015, but will now presumably be aimed at the Velka.

On Sunday, September 10^th, the main event at Prague Velká Chuchle was the 11th running of the Elektrizace Železnic Praha Gold Cup, one of our most valuable races of the year over hurdles. Tahini, trained by Josef Vána and ridden by Jan Kratochvíl, won from a good field, with Mustamir and Aztek in second and third place.

On the same day, at Wroclaw in Poland, Czech-trained horses took the first three places in the Wielka Wroclawska. Delight My Fire, trained by Radim Bodlák and ridden by Niklas Lovén, won from Pareto and Izynka. Delight My Fire will now be aimed at the Velka Pardubicka, a race for which Pareto is also entered and qualified.

Supplementary entries for the VP close on Thursday, September 21st, and declarations to run are on Friday, September 29^th.