Double hat-trick in Pardubicka

Josef Vana and Tiumen (right) blunder at Taxis

Red Rum’s three wins in the Grand National is an achievement never likely to be equalled in the race. Those wins took place over the course of five years and with two different jockeys. Alongside that, the achievement of Josef Vana at the weekend in the Czech Republic’s major steeplechase, the Velka Pardubicka, is truly astonishing.
The Pardubicka is a cross-country race run over 4 miles 2 furlongs. It has all the twists and turns of Cheltenham’s cross-country course, but with fences that are bigger and have even more variety. One is very similar to the Derby Bank at Hickstead’s showjumping arena; another is modelled on Becher’s Brook, and others require the horses to jump into and out of the ditch. For around a mile of the race the horses are running across ploughed fields.
Participation in the race is dependent on qualification in a shorter race run with similar obstacles. It truly is a case of horses for courses, and in this case of one particular jockey. The remarkable Josef Vana, who will turn 59 later this month, gained his eighth Pardubicka as a jockey, and his ninth as a trainer, when Tiumen got up close to the finish to edge out stablemate Sixteen. The combination were winning their third successive Pardubicka.
During the race, Vana had not expected to win. “I was afraid we wouldn’t catch Sixteen,” he said. “But Tiumen is a very special horse. Did you see what happened at the Taxis (four fence)? He went in the ditch and climbed out and continued as if nothing had happened. Maybe we will be back again next year.”
It did appear as if the blunder at Taxis had rather knocked the stuffing out of the horse, and for much of the race 10-year-old was nearer the back of the field in the front. However, as they came to the 26th of the 31 fences Tiumen began to close markedly and by the time they reached two out he was just four lengths down and in third place. He finally got his nose in front just 50 yards from the line.
You might expect that Tiumen was a leading chaser, but remarkably this was only the fifth win from 16 chase starts for the offspring of British bred stallion Beaconsfield .
Not surprisingly Vana is the most successful jockey in the history of the race. He first won it back in 1987, a year which heralded the first of his hat tricks in the race on board Zeleznik, and the two went on to win it again in 1991.