Lucy Wadham has a return to the Cheltenham Festival pencilled in for Jax Junior, who extended his impressive record to five wins from 13 starts on Saturday at Sandown.
The seven-year-old son of Jack Hobbs has now added two steeplechase wins to his three hurdle victories for owner-breeder Cheryl Burton.
“Today was really good to see and we’re lucky to have him,” Wadham said after the gelding posted an easy handicap chase win. “We’ll definitely look at Cheltenham. On better ground we might go two and half miles and on softer ground we might go two. The owners are quite keen on the Arkle but they are braver than me. He’s a very good horse.”
Jax Junior, who is out of the Double Trigger mare Double Storm, has barely been out of the places during his career to date. Placed in two bumpers, he got off the mark over hurdles at Doncaster in 2024, before adding two more wins to his name in that sphere at Ascot and Cheltenham as well as accruing some black type when third in the Listed Sidney Banks Memorial Novices’ Hurdle at Huntingdon.
In four starts over fences this season, he has claimed victory at Kempton as well as Sandown, and was runner-up on his chasing debut.
