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Rudolph Popler
1889-1932
Captain Rudolph Popler is best known for twice winning the Velká Pardubická and riding his Hungarian-bred horse Gyi Lovam! in the 1931 Grand National.
He was born together with his twin sister Anna on 29 May 1899 at the Jangelee flour mill, about a mile from the Czechoslovakian town of Vysoké Myto. Fascinated by horses from a young age, his ambition was to become a cavalry officer, and although very young he enlisted in the Austro-Hungarian army during the First World War and served on the Italian front.
After the war he went to Italy where he learned the art of presenting a horse at a jump. When he returned to Czechoslovakia he became an instructor at a riding school in Pardubice, where he also trained horses and rode in races.
Rudolph Popler with Gyi Lovam!
Although best known as a steeplechase rider, he also took part in Flat races and was a talented show-jumper, competing in the Olympic Games in Paris in 1924 and again in Amsterdam in 1928.
He rode in the Velká Pardubická nine times, winning it twice, on All Right II in 1926 and on Gyi Lovam! In 1930. Gyi Lovam! was undoubtedly Captain Popler’s best horse and he brought him to England to take part in the 1931 Grand National.
He stabled the horse with Stanley Harrison, who trained at Althrey, near Bangor-on-Dee. They made their English racecourse debut on 17 March 1931 in the three-mile Shrewsbury Chase at Wolverhampton, falling four fences from home.
Captain Popler and Gyi Lovam! were 100-1 outsiders when lining up in a field of 43 for the Grand National ten days later. They started off just behind the leaders and jumped well but were not fast enough to keep up. Approaching the water nearing the end of the first circuit they were almost a furlong behind the main pack, the object by then being to complete the course.
It was not to be. They fell at Becher’s second time round. Captain Popler remounted, only for Gyi Lovam! to fall again two fences later at the Canal Turn. The horse was by then exhausted and the rider understandably elected to call it a day.
Captain Popler and Gyi Lovam! came very close to winning the Velká Pardubická for a second time in 1932, just being denied in a desperate finish with Remus. Many in the crowd thought they had won but the judge thought otherwise and awarded the race to Remus.
Though bitterly disappointed, Popler congratulated the winning rider, then went out to ride his own mare, Ella, in the next race, the Kinsky Memorial Steeplechase. Ella fell at the second fence, one of the smallest on the course, crushing her rider in the process. Captain Popler was rushed to hospital but was pronounced dead on arrival.
His funeral in Vysoké Myto was a major public event. He is commemorated by a memorial plaque in front of the stands at Pardubice, and by the Popler jump (fence no. 14) and the Popler Memorial race, run on the same day as the Pardubická, are both named after him.
Information and photo taken from ‘The Velka Pardubicka and the Grand National: The Story of Two Horse Races’ by John Pinfold and Kamila Pecherová.
Rudolph Popler on All Right ll
Jump number 14 in The Velka Pardubicka is called Popler's Jump. (0.8 m high double railing), named after Grand Cpt. Rudolph Popler, who died on this jump in 1932
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