JR Racing back Juvenile Classic

JR Racing back Juvenile Classic

JR Racing will sponsor the Juvenile Classic at Towcester next month.

Having put their name to the Maiden Derby in April, the syndicate will expand their sponsorship at the Northamptonshire circuit with the upcoming Category One event for puppies.

The competition over 500m gets underway with the heats on Sunday 6th July, followed by the semi-finals a week later and the £10,000-to-the-winner decider on Sunday 20th July.

The event has been won by Droopys Clue (2023) and Slick Sentinel (2024) in the last two years and another strong renewal is expected.

Jack Russell from JR Racing is looking forward to the competition and admits he has a soft spot for the puppy races.

“I like to see the new puppies come through, which is always exciting because you don’t quite know what you’re going to get,” he said.

“To see a new dog come through and learn its trade, that’s the most exciting bit for me.

“We’ve got a few young ones that we’re bringing them through slowly and it’s lovely to see them develop. It would be nice to have some home-bred ones and to win a nice race with a home-bred - that would be my goal.”

JR Racing also sponsored the Puppy Trophy at Towcester and Russell had to watch his own Headford Asher give best to Droopys Ability in the decider on Derby final night.

Russell added: “Slick Sentinel won the Juvenile Classic last year and I said to his trainer, Patrick Janssens, that he’ll have to stop taking my money, but he didn’t listen because he took it again on Saturday night with Romeo Ability!”

“My dog (Headford Asher) didn’t run that well. We’ve had a bit of a cough in the kennel, some dogs it hasn’t affected and some it has. We’re not sure what happened to Asher, but I’m not certain that he runs Towcester that well. 

“He has come out of the race fine and we’re going to give him of a break now.”

Russell experienced a roller coaster of emotions at Towcester on Saturday as, just 18 minutes after Headford Asher disappointed, the JR Racing-owned Radical Scoby won the greyhoundtrader.com Stakes final.

“We went from the low of Headford Asher to the high of Radical Scoby, which was crazy. You’ve got the highs and lows of greyhound racing right there!”

Reflecting on the 2025 Star Sports/TRC Greyhound Derby, Russell thinks it was a brilliant renewal of the Classic and he is excited about the future of the sport with Mike Davis and Greyhound Racing UK involved.

“What a spectacle for greyhound racing. It seemed to galvanise everyone together to pull out all the stops," he continued.

“What we’ve got to do now is not rest on our laurels, because we can’t go back to how it was. I think we’ve got to keep pushing on and with Mike Davis at the helm, we’ve got a good chance.

“The stakeholders in the sport are all mad about greyhounds. We get involved because we love the dogs, it’s not for money.

“For a big crowd to be there and for everyone to be smiling, it was just fantastic. And what a night for Patrick!”