'It's an absolute fairytale' - Jax Junior helps small breeders topple a giant at Kempton

Small owner-breeder Cheryl Burton looks to have a bit of a star on her hands in Jax Junior, who easily outpointed hot favourite and smart hurdler Jeriko Du Reponet in the 2m2f beginners' chase at Kempton on Monday.

Lucy Wadham's six-year-old is the first foal Burton and partner Julian Lefevre have produced out of the lightly-raced Double Trigger mare Double Storm.

Jax Junior is one of three consecutive foals they have bred out of her by Jack Hobbs and he sets a high standard, having won three times over hurdles including at the Cheltenham April meeting and placing in the Listed Sidney Banks at Huntingdon.

He got off the mark over fences in style at the second attempt, coming well clear in the home straight with some polished leaps and winning by 12 lengths.

"It's something that you just don't expect to happen to you, we've done everything on a shoestring, we've made sure the horses were fed well, looked after well, they come first in our life. We feel truly blessed to have a horse of this talent in our midst," Burton said.

Lefevre added: "The mare showed a lot of guts but unfortunately she got injured at quite a young age, she only ran four times. I was trying to breed a Champion Hurdle winner, which obviously hasn't happened, but just to have a horse that goes and wins at any level, you're doing well. To get to the racetrack you're doing well."

Burton explained that it had been Lefevre's decision to send Double Storm to the Overbury sire, on account of his impressive racing record and his status as the hoped-for heir to the great Kayf Tara.

"We've got another [Jack Hobbs brother] at home as well as a full sister [Jax Belle], then another coming behind that, a two-year-old Frontiersman, so we've got some exciting times ahead, we hope," she told Racing TV.

Lefevre added: "To say we've done it this a shoestring…literally, we've gone without for these horses. It's worth every day that we've done it. To get to this, it's an absolute fairytale."

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