No shortage of interesting runners in the 4th VP Qualification Race on Saturday.

The last of the four qualification races for the 2019 Slavia Insurance Velka Pardubicka has attracted an interesting field. There are nine declared runners, only four of which are already qualified for the big race on Sunday, October 13th.

Last year’s VP winner, Tzigane du Berlais (Jan Faltejsek), will be running in only his second race this year. He finished a good second to Hegnus in the May qualification race at Pardubice. The race on Saturday will be a warm-up race for him, but there is a good chance that he will get the soft ground that he is said to prefer.  

Ribelino (Andrew Glassonbury) finished 7th in the May QR and again in the August QR. Dulcar de Sivola (Josef Borč) finished 6th behind Ange Guardian in the June QR. Neither appears to be a contender for this year’s VP. Nevertheless, Ribelino won the VP in record time in 2015, and Dulcar de Sivola was a decent 4-y-o chaser in France two years ago.  

Two of the declared runners are entered for the VP but have not yet qualified. They met at Pardubice over 5200 metres in August. Theophilos (Jan Kratochvíl), trained by Josef Váňa senior, won nicely, easily beating Krocoleon (Jaroslav Myška) into second place. Theophilos ran in the May QR, but was pulled up.  

The other four are not entered in the Velka, though there is still plenty of time for them to be supplemented. 8-y-o Valtz (Lukás Matuský) is moving up a class, and will be taking on better opposition than he has run against until now. 8-y-o Talent (Marcel Novák) surprised and impressed when he won the May QR in 2018. He has not run since then, but his trainer Hana Kabelková says he is fit. A decision will be made after the race whether he will be supplemented for the VP. 10-y-o Mazhilis (Josef Bartoš) is also a very interesting proposition. Trained by Josef Váňa, he won the Gran Premio di Merano in 2016. Two years ago, he started running over the crosscountry course at Pardubice. In three crosscountry runs at Pardubice, he has finished second each time. Last time out, he went quite well, and was beaten only by Evžen, a smart 5-y-o crosscountry chaser, in a Category II race.  Last but not least, Amadeon’s (Sertash Ferhanov) performance will be closely watched. This 7-y-o is trained by Helena Vocásková. She often sends horses out to run in apparently strange races, mixing flat races, hurdles and steeplechases, often running a good chaser over the flat, and then over hurdles, for example. To be fair, her horses are extraordinarily successful.  Amadeon won a good Category I hurdles race at Prague Velká Chuchle a year ago. He has won 3 races on the flat, 4 over hurdles, 1 classical steeplechase and 3 crosscountry chases, out of a total of 25 runs, plus 7 second places. Until now, he has mainly avoided running against our top horses - since he finished 5th in the Czech St Leger in 2015, that is!    

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Photo. Tzigane du Berlais, ridden by Jan Faltejsek, winning the 2018 Velka Pardubicka. Photo by Petr Guth.