Pardubice, November 16^th, 2012

This afternoon Orphee des Blins, the supreme heroine of this year’s Velka Pardubicka, faces a baptism by fire at Cheltenham. Jan Faltejsek has travelled from France to ride the mare. Jan Faltejsek is one of few Czech jockeys to have already ridden at Cheltenham [for example, on Knockara Beau in this year’s Cheltenham Gold Cup], so he will be on familiar territory. However, he has not ridden before on the crosscountry course, where the race will be today.

A renewed crisis has emerged at Merano racecourse in northern Italy. Merano Maia Spa, the association that has been organizing events at the racecourse, has been dissolved, and all members of the staff of the association have received formal letters terminating their employment.

According the the Dostihovy svet Czech-langague pages, Trezor, which finished 8th in the Velka Pardubicka after winning two of the VP qualification races, will run at Fontainebleu, France, either next Monday or later in November.

No Czech-trained horses are entered for the next race in the Crystal Cup crosscountry series, at Compiegne.

In response to the reports on Czech TV, in which the mayor of Pardubice declared that the Town of Pardubice will not go on indefinitely providing financial support for Dostihovy Spolek, organizers of events at Pardubice racecourse, Dostihovy Svet Czech language website invited Chairman of the Board Vladimír Tlučhoř to respond.

Orphee des Blins, trained by Greg Wroblewski at Zhor, near Jihlava in the Czech Moravian highlands, is one of 21 entries for the

Jiri Chaloupka, winning jockey on Legenda in the Velka Pardubicka in 1979, died in a car accident on November 7th, a few days short of his 61st birthday.

Apart from his own achievements as a jockey and as a racehorse trainer, Jiri Chaloupka was part of the Chaloupka dynasty. His brother, Vaclav, rode the winner of the Velka Pardubicka four times, on Korok (3 times) and on Vaclav. This is the only case of two brothers winning the Velka Pardubicka. His son, Jiri jnr., has been one of our leading flat jockeys since he rode the winner of the Czech St Leger as a 17-year-old in 1997.