PERUAN returned in his attempt for an unprecedented fourth straight victory in the Velka. Now at the age of thirteen he had raced just once this season but that had been a victory in the June qualifier where he had beaten several of his rivals in a blanket finish. Some way behind that day had been the Josef Vana trained CHALCO who had subsequently put up a very impressive performance in the August qualifier. He was to be ridden by German champion Peter Gehm and he was seen to be the main danger. Unusually all four winners of the qualifiers were appearing in the race with the May winner SESI and September winner MASKUL also in the line-up. Both were not however considered to have winning chances and indeed for MASKUL his win had secured him qualification at the third time of asking. Other fancied runners for the home team included BELOVODSK who had finished third in 1999 and second in 2000 and last years third the mare CZANKA. There was an impressive line up from abroad with three British challengers and two representing France. The Brits were represented by IRISH STAMP making a fourth appearance in the race, the Kim Bailey trained SUPREME CHARM who had winning form over the Cheltenham cross country course and an ex-French horse FRILEUX ROYALE who could be discounted. For France Francois Doumen sent over DJEDDAH, a familiar face to British racegoers and ANATOLE trained by Guillaume Macaire who had impressively won four cross country chases in France and started favourite. On a lovely sunny day the larger than usual field of twenty one was despatched for the last time by legendary starter Jiri Sindler. NICCOLIN and BELOVODSK were quickly away whilst the British trio were settled in rear. BARROW, SESI, NICCOLIN, CZANKA & TOAST were all prominent to the Taxis with the field well strung out. BARROW & NICCOLIN both unseated their riders at the Taxis whilst FRILEUX ROYALE, TOAST & LE MANS all struggled to get over the Irish Bank. By now DJEDDAH had been ridden into the lead and led towards the In and Out. Clear over the first part, the French horse came to a complete stop at the second as did FRILEUX ROYAL. The foreign challenge was further depleted when SUPREME CHARM (who had already been remounted having fallen into the ditch at Popkovices Turn) refused the second part as well catapulting Robert Thornton into the fence. With CZANKA having also departed the field was led by CHALCO who was jumping well leading SANKT MORITZ & BELOVODSK. IRSH STAMP was struggling at the rear of the field with the rank outsider LE MANS and PERUAN had dropped himself out at this early stage of the race. CHALCO continued to make most of the running, jumping superbly whilst doing so. The same could not be said for the Russian challenger ORGAN who nearly came down at the eleventh fence and replacement rider Jaroslav Brecka pulled off the riding performance of the race to keep the partnership intact. There were no further falls in the middle stage of the race and the large field of survivors continued to be led by CHALCO, SANKT MORITZ, TORPILLE & BELOVODSK. As the field entered the final part of the race both ANATOLE & PERUAN started to make their move on the leaders. IRISH STAMP completed a miserable day for the Brits by refusing at the English jump, the same fence he had so spectacularly departed at two years before whilst SANKT MORITZ threw away any chance of winning with a bad mistake at the same fence. Approaching Havels Jump the race was between CHALCO, BELOVODSK, TORPILLE and ANATOLE with PERUAN not far behind. Approaching Havels CHALCO seemed to be going to jump the wrong fence and Gehm lost valuable ground rectifying his mistake. Throwing the initiative to BELOVODSK the Ukranian bred was ridden into the third last hurdle in the lead where there was more drama. Jumping slightly to the left in what looked like a very small mistake resulted in Jan Havlicek being catapulted out the side door. PERUAN was now kicked into the lead followed by CHALCO with ANATOLE tracking the leader. The horses were now running directly into the sun and many believe that this is what caused the French challenger to become unsighted. Whatever happened the poor animal did not rise at the second last hurdle and came down in the most sickening somersault. The horse was clearly dead as he hit the ground leaving a bewildered Jiri Kousek sitting beside his stricken mount. One stride they had a winning chance the next, disaster. By the entrance to the straight PERUAN was clear and the crowd were on their feet ready to cheer their hero to his fourth victory but Gehm was not giving up on CHALCO. Both horse cleared the last together separated by the width of the course, CHALCO on the far side, PERUAN on the stands side. The two jockeys Gehm and Matysik were hard at work PERUAN still had the advantage but CHALCO was beginning to drift across the course. Yards from the post the two came very close together but by now CHALCO had the upper hand and the horse just denied PERUAN that historic fourth victory by length. The stewards intervened and Matysik objected but quite rightly CHALCO kept the race. The horses came close but there was no touching and it was clear that CHALCO had won on merit. For the owners this was their second Velka following Vronsky in 1997 and for Josef Vana this was a third training success. CHALCO had only come into prominence with his August qualifier victory and his star shone brightly for a few short months. In 2002 and automatically qualified for the Velka he surprisingly by-passed the qualifiers and raced just once at Pardubice in a small race before his second assault on the race. Gehm now deserted him for MASKUL and ridden by Vlastimil Spalek CHALCO sadly broke down badly early in the race and the racecourse vets were unable to save him.

VELKA PARDUBICKA CESKE POJISTOVNY 4,000,000KC (1st 2,000,000kc, 2nd 920,000kc, 3rd 600,000kc, 4th 280,000kc, 5th 200,000kc) 21 ran (56 entries)

1st CHALCO - Peter Gehm 9, 67

2nd PERUAN - Zdenek Matysik 13, 67

3rd SESI - Jiri Kamenicek 10, 67

4th TORPILLE - Jaroslav Myska 8, 64

5th SANKT MORITZ - Tomas Nehasil 7, 65

6th ST ROGER - Vladimir Snitkovskij 10, 67

7th MASKUL - Radek Havelka 7, 67

8th STORM OF FIRE - Josef Vana 8, 67

9th MINI FOR - Pavel Szikora 10, 67

10th LE MANS - Jaromir Hrudka - 11, 67

Also Ran : ANATOLE - Jiri Kousek 11, 64 (fell 29th), BELOVODSK - Jan Havlicek 9, 67 (unseated rider 28th), ORGAN - Jaroslav Brecka 7, 67 (pulled up 25th), IRISH STAMP - J P McNamara 12, 67 (refused & unseated rider 25th), TOAST - Jaroslav Linek 9, 67 (pulled up 24th), SUPREME CHARM - Robert Thornton 9, 67 (fell 6th remounted, refused & unseated rider 9th), DJEDDAH - Thierry Doumen 10, 64 (refused 9th), FRILEUX ROYAL - Jason Maguire 8, 64 (refused 9th), CZANKA - Dusan Andres 8, 65 (unseated rider 6th), BARROW - Jiri Plzak 11, 67 (unseated rider 4th), NICCOLIN - Jiri Bartusch 10, 67 (unseated rider 4th)