Pardubicka result leaves Osborne rueing one that got away

Jamie Osborne has a well deserved reputation for imaginative long-term planning and casting his net far and wide, but he let one slip through his fingers when he allowed a 78-rated two-mile winner to go for 17,000gns at the 2012 Horses In Training Sale.

Wind the clock forward five years and Osborne, who had taken no interest in the day's domestic jumping, let alone what was going on in the Czech Republic, was surprised to learn on Twitter that he had trained the winner of one of Europe's most iconic steeplechases, the Velka Pardubicka at Pardubice, with a first prize of £63,171.

In his riding days Osborne was never brave enough to tackle the four miles two furlongs of the Pardubicka, complete with daunting Taxis fence and long stretches over ploughed fields, and he had no idea the former Michael Buckley-owned now-eight-year-old No Time To Lose had carved out a respectable new career in foreign parts under the expert handling of legendary Czech jockey-turned-trainer Josef Vana.

However, with a fair degree of after-timing, one suspects, he now insists he always knew No Time To Lose, whose sole success in his former life had been in a Lingfield handicap worth just £3,068, would make a jumper – given time.

He claimed on Monday: "I do remember telling all my former jumping compatriots I had a horse who'd probably make a nice jumper, and several of them looked at him and said he was too small. I won't name them and shame them, but they know who they are!

"No Time To Lose stayed well, was very sound and very genuine. We ended up taking him back to Tattersalls because we hadn't been able to find anyone for him, but I was probably marketing him for rather more than the 17,000gns we got for him."

Osborne added: "I never rode in the Pardubicka – I'd seen enough films of it to know I didn't want to ride in it – and I didn't see it live on Sunday. I didn't even know No Time To Lose was running until I saw it on Twitter when he'd won.

"I always knew he wanted a trip and a bit of time. Five years and four and a quarter miles as it turns out!"

Velka Pardubicka result

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