The organisers of events at Pardubice racecourse will not present the new name¹ of the racecourse until next week, but the shape of the coming season is already clear in east Bohemia. Pardubice is preparing to present a racing calendar to the council of the Czech Jockey Club that will be supplemented by an innovation in the form of Friday afternoon racing². Vladimír Tlučhoř, chairman of the board of Dostihovy Spolek Pardubice, who at the beginning of the new year is optimistic about the coming season as far as Pardubice is concerned, provided information for us about this and other matters.  Why should he not be optimistic? In all probability, the figures for the business done by Dostihovy Spolek in 2012 will be in the black³, and that is a news item that they are justified in rejoicing over in Pardubice.

“For this year, from May onwards, we would like to organise races on the Fridays preceding the traditional Saturday race days,” Tlučhoř says. “Our target here is to have two flat races, together with hurdles races and one crosscountry chase. The flat races will be for steeplechasers, without starting boxes.” The concept that Pardubice is putting on the table involves the flat races being only for horses registered for jumps racing, and horses that run in ordinary flat races will not be eligible⁴. “It will be for preparing chasers. The horses will be ridden by jumps jockeys, and will carry the kind of weights that are normal in jumps racing,” he specifies.

Pardubice would like in this way to give a helping hand to jumps trainers, and have in mind that these races will attract a considerable number of horses that have been aimed at jumps racing from a young age. However, this apparently attractive coin does have a reverse side. “We would like to have lower prize money⁵ for these races than the present categories allow,” Tlučhoř warns, pointing out that the concept has been negotiated with various interested parties, and has been uniformly well received and welcomed. “We want to set up a season of these races leading up to a high point at the Velka Pardubicka meeting,” he adds.

Why not –in present-day circumstances extra race days is like an idea from science fiction. What is more, Pardubice has another trump up its sleeve for this year. “We think that the irrigation system⁶ will function well enough for a race meeting to be held in July, and this will be another innovation this year.” Of course, this growth is based on the condition of positive economic indicators. It is a priority to continue last year’s plus figures into this year, too. A further piece of positive news in this sense is a new strategic partner⁷, who will be officially introduced in the next few days, and confirmation that the entry of Petr Kellner⁸, the richest Czech, into Dostihovy Spolek was approved by the latest general meeting of the association. “Of course, strong partners are very important for us. We will see how specifically this collaboration will work out, but Česká Pojišťovna⁹ has shown long-term interest in our collaboration, and this step confirms that fact,” Tlučhoř comments.

Another strategic partnership for Pardubice racecourse is its participation in the Crystal Cup series of crosscountry races, one of which is the Velka Pardubicka. “We certainly want to continue with the Crystal Cup. It is an important element in our international strategy. It is thanks to the Crystal Cup that we were able to attract solid international participation last year,” Tlučhoř says. In December he went to Cheltenham participate in the announcement of the overall winners for this year. This year’s winner was Maljimar, which ran in this year’s Velka. “His trainer, Nick Williams, confirmed that he had had a good time in Pardubice, and that he is planning to come back next year, if possible with two horses.”

For the Crystal Cup, however, from Pardubice’s point of view, it is not quite suitable to have the Velka itself as part of the series, because the fame of the Velka in its own right distracts well-deserved attention from the Crystal Cup series¹⁰. “This is something that we should try to resolve in the future,” Tlučhoř suggests. There could also be other questions for future years. For example, whether last year’s forced move to a Saturday afternoon for the Velka did not turn out, in the end, to be an attractive option for future Velkas¹¹.

We are now on the threshold of 2013, and the most important consideration in east Bohemia will be how this coming season will be handled.

(translated from the Dostihovy svet Czech language pages)

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¹ The course is to be named after a Pardubice chemical engineering company famous for its explosives, but I am not sure that this name will catch on.

² We normally race only at weekends and on public holidays, but a late start on a Friday afternoon is an interesting suggestion.

³ Congratulations to Dostihovy spolek on achieving positive figures this year.

⁴ A few “bumper”-like races have been run in the past, at Radslavice and Svetla Hora, but not at Pardubice.

⁵ We have Category V races on the flat, but not over jumps, with prize money of just 15 000 crowns (EUR 600), out of which the winning owner gets just half. Is Pardubice suggesting a Category VI?

⁶ The irrigation system at Pardubice was extended and improved in autumn 2012. It has not yet been tested in drought conditions.

⁷ The new strategic partner is presumably Synthesia.

⁸ Petr Kellner bought the 21% of shares in Dostihovy Spolek that were sold to him by Martin Vokal.The Town of Pardubice remains the majority shareholder.

⁹ The Česká Pojišťovna insurance company has been the main sponsor of the Velka Pardubicka since the mid 1990s.

¹⁰ Difficult situations might arise if the VP is part of the Crystal Cup series, e.g. if a lot of foreign horses wanted to run, and threatened to squeeze Czech owned-horses out of ‘our’ race. Our dream is to find a sponsor for another major race, which might be run in September or November.

¹¹The traditional date for the Velka is the second Sunday in October. The race was exceptionally run on a Saturday in 2012, and attracted a very good crowd. Some people here think a Saturday might be a better day for the race. In my view, the good crowd was due to the fine weather and prospect of Josef Vana attempting to win the race for the 4^th year in succession. For international television, especially in the UK and Ireland, Sunday is a much better day. In addition, top British and Irish jockeys would not normally be available to ride on a Saturday.  

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This is an interesting set of proposals. Bumpers seems to be a good idea – they are remarkably popular in Ireland and the UK. It is also an interesting idea to offer more hurdles races. Until now, hurdling has been regarded here as mainly for 3-y-os and 4 y-os to gain some experience before going crosscountry chasing.

Pardubice racing is well supported, and the idea of offering more race days makes sense, especially if the irrigation system is able to deliver reasonable going in the mainly hot and dry Pardubice summer months. We will see how much interest there is in low-quality racing on Friday afternoons