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A $350,000 bonus will be awarded to breeders of record for horses competing March 27 at Turfway Park, in conjunction with the Kentucky Thoroughbred Association and the Kentucky Horsemen's Benevolent and Protective Association.View the full article

Laurel Park has canceled the race card scheduled for Saturday, March 14, due to insufficient entries. View the full article

Good to see that you took my advice and can now tell which way she veered, though I'm afraid I can't see any unexpected obstacle that she was confronted with myself.

A $350,000 bonus will be awarded to breeders of record for horses competing Friday, Mar. 27 at Turfway Park, in conjunction with the Kentucky Thoroughbred Association and the Kentucky HBPA, the track announced Monday morning. Breeders will compete for $35,000 in bonuses across each of the 10 races that night. The winner of each race could earn up to $21,000 if the horse is a registered Kentucky-bred. Payments will be based on a purse-style distribution: 60% to the winner, 20% to second, 10% to third, 5% to fourth and 3% to fifth. Sixth through last will receive 2%. The bonus is in addition to the traditional breeder's awards. Breeders will receive hospitality accommodations that evening at Turfway Park. More details will be available in the coming days. Entries for Friday, Mar. 27 will take place Friday, Mar. 20. The post $350,000 Breeders Bonus to be Awarded at Turfway appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions. View the full article

Cheryl Burton and Julian Lefevre have made it all look so easy. Retire a filly, decide to become breeders, and head to the Cheltenham Festival for a Grade 1 with the mare's very first foal. Whatever happens with future generations, Jax Junior, the seven-year-old son of Jack Hobbs who runs in the Singer Arkle Challenge Trophy, has already given his owner-breeders the thrill of a lifetime. Fourteen runs, six wins, including the G2 Pencil Novices' Chase, and another four placed efforts speak to the level of consistency shown by the gelding who has become the star of his trainer Lucy Wadham's Newmarket stable.  Moreover, in an era when the National Hunt norm is for a clutch of wealthy owners to dig deep into pockets at the boutique sales which now take place frequently, this is a tale which harks back to an age when smaller breeders prevailed and the spoils were more evenly scattered.  “We're generally ordinary people, so we have to go to work,” says Burton, who works for Clarendon Fine Arts while her husband is busily self-employed.  Ordinary people with an extraordinary horse, and in a country where National Hunt owner-breeders especially are becoming an increasingly rare commodity. “We will only actually be turning up at Cheltenham on Tuesday,” she adds. Tuesday was the day last year when a dream came true for the relatively unheralded Jeremy Scott, whose tough little mare Golden Ace (Golden Horn) stormed up the hill to bring the Champion Hurdle trophy home to her owner Ian Gosden. She will be back, and vying with her for “fairytale result” territory is Jax Junior, a David taking on the likes of Kopek Des Bordes, Romeo Coolio and Lulamba from the Goliath stables of Willie Mullins, Nicky Henderson and Gordon Elliott.  “Statistically, I think when you look at what we've done, we don't really have the right to have had our very first horse be of such a good quality really. How many horses don't even make it into training? So to have a horse that actually has got some quality about him, we've gone against the grain,” says Burton. But who in the sport would deny them this success? The amphitheatre of dreams that is the Cheltenham Festival is enriched by stories such as this. To a list which includes the likes of Dawn Run, Norton's Coin, Coneygree, Cool Dawn, Hunt Ball and Golden Ace, the name Jax Junior would be a welcome addition. Burton and Lefevre, after all, have just the one broodmare who lives alongside their 24-year-old retired racehorse, Act Gold (Slip Anchor). “We had a paddock and we had a foal, our first foal, and then we had a further three,” says Burton, who, with Lefevre, became involved in racing through syndicate ownership. “We sadly lost one foal in the process but I'm a firm believer that things happen for a reason.” Jax Junior's dam Double Storm (Double Trigger) raced in the same colours as her son and was placed in two bumpers from four starts after being injured as a young horse. She had been given a 50-50 chance of making it to the track but, through the patience and care of her owners, finally made her debut at the age of six.   Jax Junior as a foal with Double Storm | Cheryl Burton   “We wanted to give her a chance to grow into her body so we turned her away in a field. She never really got to show how good she might have been,” Burton says. “We also had a gelding from a previous syndicate, so we ended up with these two horses in the field. “I hit 50 and decided that life was too short to continue to work like a lunatic. We decided at that point that we were going to breed and give it a go. We had nothing to lose. It was a dream.” In his retirement, Act Gold now has an important role at the couple's home in Buckinghamshire as a 'nanny' to the offspring of Double Storm once they are weaned.  “He puts some manners on them, but he's a huge, gentle giant, almost 18 hands” says Lefevre. Some high jinx between Act Gold and Jax Junior boiled over one summer and, as Lefevre puts it, “they decided to have a bit of a kicking competition with each other.” He continues, “Junior ended up with a fat knee and I'm not a vet by any stretch, but I know legs are quite important to horses. Our vet, who has retired since then, Bob Baskerville, came out and looked at him and he was worried that there could be a chip. “He's old school and he's an amazing vet, and I'm not quite sure how he managed it, but he just basically said, leave it for two or three days. He did everything by feel, no x-rays, and we are where we are today because of the advice that he's given us. We followed everything he said because we respect him massively, but it was quite an emotional rollercoaster.” First, do no harm. Advice that is sometimes lost in age of technological advances. And in the case of Jax Junior this wait-and-see approach, from both vet and breeder, has paid off handsomely.  “It could have been end of his career, but we were very blessed again,” Lefevre acknowledges. The couple is also full of praise for Wadham, who trains both Jax Junior and his year-younger full-sister Jax Belle.  “I think we're very lucky with Tom Cannon as a jockey as well,” says Burton. “Tom is like Lucy and doesn't quite get the opportunities he deserves, really. But he just gets on with it and he's formed such a good relationship with Junior.” Lefevre adds of Cannon, who is also the regular rider of multiple Grade 1 winner Edwardstone, “The positive is he's one from one in the Arkle.” Inevitably, with a horse as promising as Jax Junior, there have been calls from potential buyers. Lefevre once had to interrupt a round of golf on the 18th tee to take a call from Jamie Goss, who looks after their breaking, pre-training and spelling, on behalf of one such interested party. It was a short conversation. “I just said, 'Well, he's not for sale,” he recalls.  “It's definitely a labour of love, but of course, the money that comes along with winning is obviously a big benefit because it's a hugely costly business.” Double Storm, who also has a three-year-old filly by another Overbury Stud resident, Frontiersman, is likely to pay a return visit to Jack Hobbs this year. “It would be silly not to, wouldn't it? Although, looking at the Frontiersman filly, we were very undecided and we just didn't know which way to go. But given Junior's performance, we can't not, really,” Lefreve says.  “Commercially, it'd be the right thing to do. But me and the wife both look at each other and think, 'Well, we're never going to sell anyway, are we?' I mean, we should do, but we just seem to collect them, and they've always got loving homes with us. We're just big softies.”   Jax Junior, right, with Tom Cannon | Racingfotos   Burton admits that she is finding it hard to concentrate on anything other than thoughts of the big race looming. “It's one of those situations where we are both, first and foremost, just thinking 'Come home safe'. Anything above and beyond that is a bonus for us,” she says. “He's won some races. He's won some money. That lovely amount of money will cover his training bills, which is a massive help. He's earned his place in the race, and we've just got to see how he turns up on the day and if the other horses in the race can answer the questions that they need to answer.  “But as long as he comes home safe and sound and runs his race, we'll be very happy.” She adds, “I'm looking at my winners' wall as we speak. I just still keep pinching myself that I've actually got six pictures on the wall of his six wins. It's still a fairytale for us.”   The post First Foal, First Cheltenham Festival for Jax Junior’s Breeders Burton and Lefevre appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions. View the full article