The meetings at Pardubice on Saturday, first race at 12.00, and at Prague Velka Chuchle on Sunday, first race at 12.15, will bring the Czech racing season to an end.

Two jockeys, one over jumps and one on the flat, have a good chance of winning the jockeys' championship for the first time. Marcel Novak has ridden 13 winners this season, like Jaroslav Myska, but Novak leads on second places. Marcel Novak is not our most gifted jockey, but he is notably tough and determined in a country where jumps jockeys are tough and determined, and has worked very hard to be placed to win the title. Marek Stromsky or Josef Bartos could win the championship, too, but both would need to ride three more winners than either Novak or Myska.

In 2013, the Velka Pardubicka will return to its traditional date, the second Sunday in October. The race will be run on Sunday, October 13th.  

Josef Bartos still hopes to win the jumps jockeys' championship for 2012. He has appealed against his disqualification in the first race on Velka Pardubicka day, when he rode All About Cossio. He was originally suspended from riding for two racing days, which would have virtually ended his chances in the championship. However, his suspension has now been put off pending the outcome of his appeal.

10-y-o Orphee des Blins, heroine of this year’s Velka Pardubicka, returned home to   Zhoři in good shape and without any signs of major exhaustion. The mare, which completed the course without any major challenge from any of the other runners, is according to her trainer Greg Wroblewski, full of life and showing no signs that she has the longest race of her life behind her. “Everything is as it should be. She is healthy, cheerful and full of strength,” Wroblewski says. And he is looking to see where he might make further use of the mare’s good form later this year. And since crosscountry chasing is the domain of the French, and more recently also of the English and the Irish, those are the directions in which he is looking.

Jan Faltejsek may not had the most successful year in Great Britain, but in his homeland, he has just become a national hero. Winning the Velka pardubicka is not the easiest of tasks a jockey can face, but  taking the lead in the very first meters and  still manage to lead all the way, it takes  some courage, luck, and  a very special horse. French bred mare Orphee des Blins proved  herself to be  such horse. She fought her way through the 6900 metres long course and won  the Velka pardubicka in  very convincing  way.   „She is a monster,“ commented Faltejsek. „She just  would not stop.

The aktualne.cz web site will help you learn the course of the Velka Pardubicka, and shows the obstacles in three dimensions http://sport.aktualne.centrum.cz/velka-pardubicka-grafika/r~ebff0e5412cf11e2b0680025900fea04/

This is a first-class film about the Velka Pardubicka - just the thing to get you into the mood for Saturday's race.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hjr2FIrLcjI