Velka Pardubicka: 54 entries 2009-05-29
Just 54 entries have been announced for the Velka Pardubicka, 15 of them from abroad. The best favoured of the Czech-trained entries will be Amant Gris, which was disqualified after being first past the post in VP 2008; Sixteen, winner of VP 2008 and 2007; and Juventus, placed in VP 2006, 2007 and 2008. Tomis, Mandarino and Pocci finished first, second and third in the May 2009 qualification race. Wrbna Racing lost Moning Let in this qualification race, but still has three representatives: 14-y-o Hastaven and 13-y-o Red Dancer, which hit the last fence very hard at Pardubice on May 23rd when going quite well, and 7-y-o Baggio, which showed plenty of promise as a novice in 2007. Decent Fellow has now been retired, but his owner, Dr Jiri Charvat, has entered German Malt, which has shown some promise. There had been some speculation that Jiri Charvat's champion park-course chaser Royal Mougins would be tried out over the Pardubice cross-country course, but he is not among the entries. Numero Due finished 4th in VP 2008, and could well do even better at the age of 8. His rider will have been disappointed to be unseated when Numero Due ran at Pardubice on May 23rd. 13-y-o Hirsch, which ran the race of his life to finish second in VP 2008, is entered again. Nikodem has a good park-course record in Italy, but did not seem to take to the Pardubice cross-country course in October 2008. Dandys has only run twice over fences, but won a small race well at Pardubice at the end of last season. This grey could be a dark horse. Welldancer and Del Sole are 7-y-os trained by Josef Vana, and both are promising. Some horses that ran in VP 2008 are there again: Mr Land, Marath, Jung and Profil. Among the trainers, Radek Holcak has five entries, and his father Frantisek has three. Josef Vana has six, Cestmir Olehla three and Hana Kabelkova three.The foreign entries are led by Silver Birch, winner of the 2007 Aintree Grand National... He finished 2nd in the La Touche Cup over the banks at Punchestown in April 2009. Let us hope he will make the journey to the Czech Republic in October. Darkness finished 13th in the 2009 Aintree Grand National, carrying 10 st 9 lb. Irish-trained Wonderkid is one of the big names in cross-country races at Punchestown and Cheltenham.horses Trainers Charlier Mann and Ferdy Murphy, regular visitors to Pardubice, have each entered a horse. Charlie Mann trains Mr Big, and Ferdy Murphy trains Lucky Nellerie, which won in April at Sedgefield. Both appear to be quite good class 4 handicappers. Burntoakboy runs takes on top opposition in Britain. Team Chaser won a novices chase at Towcester in April. Super Lord won a small race at Warwick a year and a half ago, but has done nothing much since then. L'Ange du Boulay and Nadou are French-trained.
Two entries from top Italian trainer Paolo Favero are said to have "gone missing in the post". Supplementary entries can be made until October 1st.
