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I have just joined and have written an introduction in the Lounge.<br>I have just written up an article about the Velka Pardubicka :o on my myspace which some of you may be interested in. Just go to the blog at the top and click for some interesting insights, as my brother and I were involved in the revival of the race in recent years.
http://www.myspace.com/davedent
The Velka is held the second sunday in October every year, so we are starting to think about it now, especially as Czech horses have been cleaning up in Europe again. It is the ultimate test of a racehorse and rider.<br>It requires true guts and a special relationship. This is racing’s final frontier; and has a rawness and sense of glory about it that I feel our racing has lost because of emphasis on betting. Hope you enjoy reading about it.
I’ve been, and I think it’s a terrible race. Rubbish horses plodding round ploughed fields. Very boring indeed.<br>The drinking’s good though.:) :)
An interesting article on your blog. Not sure I agree with all of it (isn’t it a bit harsh to label Animal Rights campaigners, many of whom have bettered the lot of a variety of our fellow beasts, as ‘fascists’?) but you are obviously a passionate person who values the spirit of the cavalier.
Regarding the Pardubicka. Having been weaned on the Grand National I used to watch with interest whenever the BBC (or was it ITV?) used to show, each year, snippets of the race. Always seemed more like a cross country hunt than a horse race but I’m sure that if you were there and caught up in the whole thing it’d all take on a different hue.
Anyway, welcome to the Racing Forum and I look forward to reading more of your views in due course GGD.
Yes zorro the drinking is good and obviously you indulged to the extent that you didn’t get involved in the racing!<br>If you think the horses are rubbish you had better be prepared for a bit of a shock in the next few years. Already those trainers here who have had faith in buying horses there have been very succesful. Naturally Galileo stands out after winning at Cheltenham. This was a horse who perfomed mediocre over there. And Czech horses are absoultely dominating German and Italian jumps racing. Wait until you see Kolorado. And look at Registana. There are real racehorses.
Thankyou for the welcome Cormack.<br>PETA believe in the complete eradication of the thoroughbred racehorse, and all pets. They are the most influential and respectable Animla rights group yet their ONLY animal shelter does this:<br>http://www.petakillsanimals.com/petaTrial2.cfm
Admin Note : Please be aware this link contains some graphic and disturbing images of animal suffering. Cormack
So no, I do not think they have done anything to better the lives of animals. The only worthwhile animal charity is the WWF, plus rehoming/shelters based on a non conflict model like the ILPH . All the others are conning people in my opinion with the most outrageous untruths.<br>Banning hunting for example will radically change habitats in the UK and cause extinctions. Habitat for animals such as wild cats, red squirrels, stoats….and even foxes (after Hitler banned it in the Czech republic the fox was extinct there in 5 years) etc are protected by traditional hunting use.
Have a look at my webpage  at least to help you see the other side of things. Our media is in the grip of the money of organisations like PETA and the RSPCA (yes they kill thousands of healthy animals very year too…by their own admission) and their big advertising budget.<br>So it will not hurt to tell the other side.
Most of us involved at the animal end of racing see this as a war. A series of barricades to be defended or otherwise we will have no racing and therefore no horses as the century wears on. The second part of that is totally unacceptable to anyone involved; therefore I ask for punters to hear our perspective as we know the enemy beneath their media gloss.
The USA now has PETA down on the "watch" list for its support of AR terrorists and anybody who has anything to do with animals…dog breeders, the equine industry,<br>farmers etc. are beginning to mobilise against it. We howver haben’t realised the full implications of the dark pholosophy behind the AR movement.  <br>But then there are people who say Hitler made good roads….
<br>Anyway, I haven’t joined this partcular forum for that.
Back to the Velka. It has 170 years of history and has survived extremism before. It was considered on a par with our Grand national in the 19th century, and still retains all the elements of original steeplechasing. We have the cross country at Cheltenham and Edward Gillespie fully sees the potential of internationilsing steeplechasing. Auteuil and other france galop/french  courses like Pau and le petre ,Merano, Waargem, Punchestown, Rostov on Don ,and the US steeplechasing Authority have been talking behind the scenes for several years now. We simply have to get behind steeplechase cross country and have no shortage of trainers owners and riders that fully support that vision.
Britain has the best jumps racing in the world, but we cannot exist in isolation from the rest of the world’s chasing, as this would be an incredible lost opportunity for a steeplechasing world series, which would have to recognise the character of their chasing, as they must too stage more races of our type.
It would be far better if Kempton had built a course where the horses have to swim through that lake than that dirt track they built!
Sorry Greengreendesert. Each to his own taste I suppose.<br>Can’t have Registana as a great example though. Not on the evidence of a decent run in another obstacle race at Cheltenham.<br>Some Czech horses are good, although the Poles are better, I think. But they don’t run the good ones in this race because they know it finishes them off. When has a Velka Pardubicka runner ever won a decent race over here?<br>I liked the horse after whom you named yourself though. So at least we have some shared views:cool:
Welcome to the forum GGD. I hope you don’t mind me saying that your link criticises a whole organisation for the misdeeds of two people. I have seen much right wing propaganda in my time, and it always tends to slam many for the actions of the few. It ain’t right.<br>I could post you a nice link to videos of the vietnamese fur industry in action, but that wouldn’t be very nice viewing I can assure you. My opinion is that any organisation that helps defenseless animals is better than nothing, don’t you agree?<br>As for the VP, I enjoy the Grand National as a specticle as do I the Czech race. As Zorro says, it is basically decent horses running across ploughed fields and over a few banks. A novelty race IMO, but I do enjoy viewing it for what it is, that being, something a little different from the norm.
It is our races that are the novelty races in world terms I am afraid. There are 50 plus steeplechase courses just in Brittany alone …all have cross country elements as do Auteuil and Pau. The Grand Steeplechase of Merano is worth 350 000 euros.
If you think the misdeeds of two people is what I am talking about alone you should read wat Ingrid Newkirk and other PETA ideologists say about horse racing.and pets. Extermination of all no less. Any ownership of an animals is abhorrent to them.
There are severe doubts over the authenticity of the videos from se Asia and China.  No times dates places or witnesses. Some people have come forward from the region saying they were offered money to stage such a thing. I have been to several fur farms and the animals are treated as well as racehorses. The vast majority of furbearers are euthanised humanely as a vet does. What on earth would be the point of skinning an animal alive? I would love to see someone try that with a mink. I wouldn’t give much odds they would have a face left.
<br>I am not right wing or left wing. I am apolitical. I know my enemy and it is the enemy of everyone who wants to see animals continue to exist.
Animals are not defenceless. If you mistreat them you will pay for it.
I am glad you like Green Green Desert Zorro; if you go to my myspace and click on my pics (you will have to join but it is free quick and simple) then you will see him. We have him in his retirement. We call him Desi and we adore him.
We have a pet lamb ourselves, and everyone at the yard helps with the following just for example: rehabilitation and care of about 20 ex racehorses including a couple of very very old National runners;have swallows nesting in the horses boxes, owls in the tack room; pay for veterinary treatment for injured wild animals because we know how bad the RSPCA are; bats in one of the outbuildings;encourage stoats and buzzards; it is not uncommon to find people on the yard nursing fox cubs (after the vixen has been killed by someones driving too fast) ; we provide hedgerows, water courses, make sure that nesting herons and kingfishers are not disturbed, etc etc etc. This is the norm in the countryside and we do not ask for anyones money to do it. And we are vilified by the likes of PETA for exploiting animals. It sucks.
PETA want racing banned and the thorougbred exterminated as an abhorration by neutering. The RSPCA want whips banned, jockeys prevented from remounting etc. <br>The way the government have handled the countryside since they have been in power is apalling. We lost a vert dear old friend last tear; our 27 year old Arabian. We were not even allowed to give him a decent burial. <br>I could tell you about pet lambs being dragged from the arms of crying children and shot in front of them; badly; during foot and mouth.
No the AR movement and the Governmnet do not care at all about animals. It is just a power/range war.
http://www.care2.com/c2c/share/detail/69309
http://www.activistcash.com/organizatio … cfm/oid/21<br>Read some of those PETA quotes…in their own words. These are scary people.
If you read through those two items thoroughly and then still think that horses, let alone horse racing, have a future if PETA  are not met head on, I would like to know how.
<br>(Edited by GreenGreenDesert at 6:57 am on Aug. 20, 2006)<br>
(Edited by GreenGreenDesert at 7:13 am on Aug. 20, 2006)
In that c2c link, note:<br>"We are not especially interested in animlas. Neither of us had ever been inordiantely fond pf dogs cats and horses the way that many people are. We didn’t love animals." Peter Singer
Just in case you were in any doubt this has anything to do with animals. I live for animlas; they are my passion and like many people who work with horses, We all devote our lives to their care. Some of us are getting mad, and fearful, of what is to come.
Oh and by the way…about Registana at Cheltenham. She would have won easily. <br>Peter gehm was shown around the course in the morning and the last obsatcle was not in place (portable hudle thing) . He was told he just had to jump the last and saw the plian chase fence. She had never seen a fence like that, and Peter actually said on TV that he was a bit concerned about it as she had never seen a fence like that. That is why he jumped it; therefore taking the worng course. Dunwoody did something similar on Risk of Thunder at Pardubice. It happens.
But talking of Dunwoody, he was asked in A Horse magazine to name his most memeorable race. Of all his great victories, the grand national included, what did he choose to wrote about?<br>Yes. His third place on Its a Snip in the velka. He was back there last year to watch the race. That is the power and mythology for riders. It is a spiritual place for them; and me.
"Industrious", trained by Enda Bolger, has been supplemented for the Velka Pardubicka.<br>That makes ten entries from abroad this year, including Britain and France.<br>Registana finished with a knock after her last run, but should be okay to take her chance on the big day. Maskul, last years winner absolutely hacked up at Pardubice last weekend. <br>Massini and Kolorado are due to run this weekend abroad, which means thay are likely to miss the last Velka qualifier. Kolorado , though one of the best Czech horses ever, is widely believed not to like the banks. He will probabaly be aimed at another chase on the nine chase card.
If he is ever entered in the Cheltenham Gold Cup, he could be a serious threat. The Irish have already offered big money for him which has been declined.
(Edited by GreenGreenDesert at 12:04 am on Sep. 2, 2006)
Well don’t say I don’t give good tips!!! I siad watch out for the Czech horses abroad.
Czech horses DOMINATED in Europe this weekend with wins in FOUR other countries:
Serge won at Baden Baden in Germany with Decent Fellow third<br>Vernar won at Merano in Italy<br>Kolorado and Moon Blade gave Paddy Aspell a double in Slovakia<br>Le Vent won in Austria.
That is pretty good going with a horse pool far far smaller than ours.
The sad news howvere is that Registana’s injury does after all rule her out of the Velka and is now reired to be covered probably by a German stallion.
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It seems like a few people are going out to Pardubice this year, so for those of you going…and for those of you interested in future…some things to learn to say that will get you by and get you a good welcome.
Firstly, get the name of the place right. The way most British people say it is the ultimate faux pas.<br>It is NOT par…du…bee…chee
In Fact, "the pronounciation "du bee chee" sounds a little like the Czech word for "*****. So it is ESSENTIAL to get the pronounciation right!!!!<br>The town is pronounced Par…doo…bitz…a
And the race (because of czech grammar) is;<br>vel…kar  par..doo…bitz…Ka(r)
Now for some simple Czech phrases:
pivo prossim (pee..vo pross..eem) Beer please<br>cava prossim (car va "  ")  coffee please
Vitez misto (vee…tes(h) mee..stow) win and place
krasny kone (kras…nee  kon..(i).. yeh) beautiful horse
dobbri den (dob…ree den) good day
diki mots  thankyou very much
dobbro nots  good night
ciao  hi/bye (familiar…you must have met the person)
ahoy  hello
Literally that will do …but you MUST know those…people do not speak English…they do Russian and German in schools. Use these and they will be flattered you have made some effort and so will they.<br>Pardubice is not Prague. It is not a global culture city.
If you do not try to use those and expect it to be like france…then expect to have a good a time as Clement Freud had. He is now banned from the course.
(Edited by GreenGreenDesert at 10:25 pm on Sep. 5, 2006)
From Paddock revue update (Czech):
Pal Kallai to make his Prague debut<br>Legendary Hungarian jockey Pal Kallai will have his first ever ride at Velka Chuchle on September 17th at the age of 73. Kallai escaped from Hungary in 1956, and rode in Austria, Germany and the USA, where he also became a champion featherweight boxer. He returned to Europe in 1978 and to Hungary after 1989. He has ridden over 2000 winners in all. In 1992 he rode seven winners on a 10-race card at Budapest. He has been Hungarian champion jockey seven times. Pal Kallai rides Adoracja in the second race on the 100th anniversary day programme.<br>1000 bottles of sekt<br>A thousand bottles of sekt and five thousand glasses are ready for the free centenary celebratory drink at 3 p.m. at Velka Chuchle on Sunday, September 17th. If that does not attract a good crowd, what will!<br>Plenty of entertainment on September 17th<br>The entertainment on Sunday 17th begins at 12.40, when a military band will strike up. Throughout the afternoon there will be a range of shows and events, in addition to the 8-race card. <br>Final VP qualifying race flop<br>The final qualifying race for the VP has attracted only 7 runners. With the withdrawal of Ner, the only interest is whether Ligreta, too young for this year’s VP, can put out a marker for next year. Icare du Renom and Jack de Trao Land are taking this last chance to qualify for the race on October 8th. Jack de Trao Land will be ridden by Josef Van’a junior, who will also ride him on Ocotber 8th, against his father, who will be on Retriever.<br>
How do you qualify a horse for the Pardubicka? (just asking out of curiosity).
There is something about names in English for Czech horses that makes me laugh, I am not quite sure why, perhaps because they are unlikely names for a horse bred here, but Retriever is a fine example.
There are a number of qualifying races held throughout the summer at Pardubice and your horse must finish in the first 6 to qualify.
For British and Irish horses you must have completed a 3m 2f steeplechase to qualify within the previous 12 months I think. If the entry is in by May 21st then it is a basic entry fee, but horses can now be supplemented at additional cost.
Many of the words you think are English are not in fact. rememeber English is a mongrel language made up of French German and latin, middle english based but with saxon and celtic influences too. There is in other words very little that is really english except for modern words. Retriever is of French origin (retrouve) and has variations throughout Europe. <br>Likewise, czech was forbidden as a written language by various Germanic armies, and so the Czechs had no written language for many years, they had to make it up with scholars in the 1920’s. So there are some odd words.<br>The international nautical term "ahoy" for example, is used as a greeting. There are those who say that Czech sailors (who are renowned despite being ladlocked) picked up the saying and it got included in the language, then other who say the origin is actually Czech.
But sometimes yes; they seemingly pick odd words until you know why. But often they are German Polish and even Irish horses too remember….so not all are named in Czech. <br>Yhety seem to use K a lot though I am not sure why. Kolorado and Kreator for example.
Also did you know that the first cowboys were Czech? and western riding, barrel racing and country and western music are huge there…they claim to have invented all said things.
There are a number of qualifying races held throughout the summer at Pardubice and your horse must finish in the first 6 to qualify.
For British and Irish horses you must have completed a 3m 2f steeplechase to qualify within the previous 12 months I think. If the entry is in by May 21st then it is a basic entry fee, but horses can now be supplemented at additional cost.
Many of the words you think are English are not in fact. rememeber English is a mongrel language made up of French German and latin, middle english based but with saxon and celtic influences too. There is in other words very little that is really english except for modern words. Retriever is of French origin (retrouve) and has variations throughout Europe. <br>Likewise, czech was forbidden as a written language by various Germanic armies, and so the Czechs had no written language for many years, they had to make it up with scholars in the 1920’s. So there are some odd words.<br>The international nautical term "ahoy" for example, is used as a greeting. There are those who say that Czech sailors (who are renowned despite being ladlocked) picked up the saying and it got included in the language, then other who say the origin is actually Czech.
But sometimes yes; they seemingly pick odd words until you know why. But often they are German Polish and even Irish horses too remember….so not all are named in Czech. <br>They seem to use K a lot though I am not sure why. Kolorado and Kreator for example. I assume it is because the "C" in Czech is never "hard" and usualy pronounced "tz". So Crowns is Krowns (Koruna) for example. But even seeing that Kreator is creator, the promouciation is different. It is Cree- AT- or . So again not English though meaning the same.
Also did you know that the first cowboys were Czech? and western riding, barrel racing and country and western music are huge there…they claim to have invented all said things.
Robin Healey reports from Prague:
Six Czech-trained runners for the 67th Gran Premio Merano Forst
<br>Six Czech horses are expected to go to Merano for the richest steeplechase in the Italian calendar on Sunday September 24th. The strongest challengers are probably Masini, who won this race in 2004, and Kolorado, who would have won it last year if he had not been taken off course. Both of these horses are owned by Wrbna racing and trained by Cestmir Olehla. Paddy Aspell will ride Masini and Dirk Fuhrmann will be on Kolorado. It seems that the choice of rides was made by the owner.
<br>The other four entries are all trained by Josef Van’a. Pessoa, who won at Merano on September 10th after a 4-month lay-off, may be the best of them, but Lutin des Bordes, Serge and Bejrut are all strong contenders for the place money. Stable-jockey Josef Bartos has ridden all four of them to victory in good races this season, and he has a difficult choice to make here.
<br>The Gran Premio is run over a distance of 5000 metres for total prize money of 320000 Euros. There are 21 entries, and declarations to run must be made by 9 a.m. on September 22nd.
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our horse Jermak was third today and he will therefore be entered for Pardubice for the 3 year old hurdle the day before the Velka.
We are delighted. He was only beaten two lengths and next year he will hopefully make a nice young cc chaser.
How will he do at Pardubice? None of us has any idea…you had best ask him!
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