Pain-free steeplechasing trips to Central Europe in September and October

There are nowadays three particularly important steeplechase race meetings in Central Europe in September and October. Each of them is a remarkable event, the highlight of the steeplechasing season in Poland, Italy, and the Czech Republic. EU passport holders can travel very easily to enjoy central European steeplechasing, in which, by the way, Czech-trained horses and Czech jockeys will feature prominently. 

Steeplechasing has re-established itself at Wroclaw racecourse in Poland, and the traditional Wielka Wroclawska has been revived and run for good prizemoney since 2013. This year, the Wielka Wroclawska steeplechase and also the Wielka Partynicka, over hurdles, will be run on Sunday, September 2nd. Last year’s winner, Delight My Fire, went on to finish third in the Velka Pardubicka. She is trained by Radim Bodlák, in the Czech Republic, and her regular jockey from Sweden, Niklas Lovén, is expected to ride her in the race again this year. She is probably the only horse ever to be a course specialist both on the turf and straightforward obstacles at Wroclaw and over the unique set of testing obstacles and intermittent ploughed fields at Pardubice. Her three runs so far this year, at Clairfontaine, in France, at Milan and at Wroclaw, have achieved only a decent 4th place at Milan, but she is likely to be in good shape and aimed at both the Wielka Wroclawska and the Velka Pardubicka again.

The highlight of the Italian steeplechasing season will be the 79th running of the Gran Premio Merano Alto Adige/Grosser Preis von Meran Südtirol. Merano is in the far north of Italy, right below the Dolomites, and this is one of the world’s most spectacular racecourses. Czech-trained horses have tended to win this race in recent years, and last year’s winner, Al Bustan, trained in the Czech Republic by Stanislav Popelka, will be a strong contender. He has won all of his last eight races, a run which includes a remarkable double - he won last year’s Swedish Grand National and the Gran Premio in the same season. There will probably be some top French-trained runners in the race, as well as some good Italian-owned chasers trained in the Czech Republic by Josef Váňa. The Gran Premio meeting this year is a two-day event, featuring a race in the Crystal Cup crosscountry series on Saturday, September 29th and the Gran Premio on Sunday, September 30th.

The Velka Pardubicka will be run at Pardubice racecourse, one hundred kilometres east of Prague, on its traditional date, the second Sunday in October. There will be a two-day meeting, as usual. On Saturday, October 13th, the featured events will be two Czech championship races over hurdles and a decent race on the classical steeplechase course, which we hope will attract a good field.  On Sunday, October 14th, there will be eight spectacular cross-country races, culminating in the 128th running of the Velka Pardubicka, which will be run at about 4.40 pm. Last year’s VP was won by the valiant mud-spattered No Time To Lose, trained by Josef Váňa and ridden by Jan Kratochvíl. No Time To Lose was narrowly beaten into third place at Pardubice in May, in his only run so far this season, and he showed that his preparation for defending his title in October was going according to plan. Trainer Josef Vána seems sure to have several of the strongest contenders for the VP again this year, with Ange Guardian and Zarif also impressive in their warm-up runs.

Pardubice is very easy to get to. RyanAir flies from Stansted to Pardubice. A very good option is to fly to Prague, or indeed to Brno or Ostrava, and to make one or more day trips to Pardubice. There are plenty of hotels in the Prague city centre area between the main railway station and Wenceslas Square that are ideally located for racegoers who want to combine evenings in Prague with racing in Pardubice. Frequent mainline trains stop in Pardubice. Nowadays there are services run by Czech Railways, and by the private companies Regiojet and LeoExpress. These companies are still competing with each other on service, price, speed and frequency. Like EU membership, this competition is coming under threat, but it should last at least until October 14th. Do avoid travelling between Prague and Pardubice racecourse by road. On Velka day, the traffic congestion and parking problems are horrible, while a train and the complimentary bus service to and from the racecourse are literally too good to last.

A year from now, we Brits will be standing in the line for aliens at all airports, wherever we travel, and, in all likelihood, Regiojet will have sold out to Czech railways. You Brits had better enjoy a visit to steeplechasing in Central Europe this year, before the lights start going out, and before the pain from being shot in the foot by our fellow-countrymen is too great.       

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(photo of No Time Time To Lose and Jan Kratochvíl after the 2017 Velka Pardubicka, by Petr Guth)