30 entries for the 2020 Velka Pardubicka
Entries have closed for the 130th running of the Velka Pardubicka, which will be run at Pardubice racecourse on Sunday, October 11th. Late entries can be made until September 24th.
Thirty entries at this stage, in these strange times, is a good number, and the quality of the entries is high. Josef Váňa senior trains seven of the entries, each of which has a different owner. Theophilos won the VP in 2019, and No Time To Lose won in 2017. Mazhilis finished 4th in VP 2019, and he could become the first horse to win the VP and the Gran Premio di Merano. Ange Guardian has won a number of VP qualification races, but the extra distance of the big race seems not to favour him – and he is now 12 years old. Váňa’s three entries that have not been aimed at the VP before are also not to be ignored.
Horses that have done well in the Velka before often do well again. No Time To Lose won from Urgent de Gregaine in 2017; Tzigane de Berlais, Hegnus and Stretton finished 1st, 2nd and 3rd in 2018; Theophilos, Stretton and Chicname de Cotte finished 1st, 2nd and 3rd last year. They are all entered again for this year’s race.
Last but not least, French trainer Emmanuel Clayeux has entered two horses, including Urgent de Gregaine, and Irish trainer Gordon Elliot trains Out Sam, rated 140, which finished 3rd in the Glenfarclas Crosscountry Chase at Cheltenham in December 2019.
Entries for the 130th running of the Slavia Insurance Velka Pardubicka
**
Photo of No Time To Lose, by Petr Guth.