Merano’s efforts to grow runners for their prestige cross country race, the 82nd running of the Premio Delle Nazioni – Memorial Marco Rocca, have unhappily not been rewarded, with just 5 runners declared for this €45,000 third leg of the Crystal Cup, ensuring that Josef Vana will leapfrog Patrice Quinton to the head of the Crystal Cup leaderboard.

Of the five, only Younes, trained by Zdenek Semenka, does not come from the Vana stable.

Nevertheless, favourite and last year’s winner, Laldann, is not necessarily a shoo-in. The 11 year old had enjoyed a productive summer at Merano, racking up victories over Almost Human in May over a shorter distance, and over Younes, both in May before failing by 5l to White Wood in August, the winner having something in hand. However, he is not the choice of stable rider Josef Bartos, which may be revealing in itself.

Bartos is jocked up against Almost Human, 4l second to Younes in his most recent run over a shorter distance here in early August. The Grand Steeplechase di Roma in mid-May gives a line on all three of these runners, Almost Human finishing 8 1/4l fourth to Laldann, Younes in second. The only reason to suspect that form is the extra 1,000m of this race, but the typical twists and turns of a cross country race do not make this representative of a true stayers’ race necessarily.

The third Vana runner, Grand du Thaix, has plenty to find against Laldann and Younes. He finished a distant fifth to Speed Emile here back in May, but Speed Emile is no slouch at Merano, unbeaten here since in 4 runs since 2024.

The unknown in the pack is five year old Vesuvio, who hasn’t won since Pisa in February ’25, but has rarely finished out of the frame since. It should be assumed he is still on the upgrade, although he’s never been tried over this extended 6,000m. Ondřej Velek takes the ride.

With a small field, a false pace is likely in the absence of a pacemaker, so this may turn into a waiting race. With that in mind, Younes is fancied to put a stop to Laldann’s run of success, and deny the Vana stable a clean sweep.

For a full list of runners, click here.