JM Jungle has already won the valuable Epsom Dash Handicap and the Group 2 King George Qatar Stakes at the Goodwood Festival but the late-blooming five-year-old is about to attempt victory at the very highest level.
He runs in the Group 1 Coolmore Wootton Bassett Nunthorpe Stakes at York on Friday 22nd August before a probable crack at the Prix de l’Abbaye in Paris in the autumn – “a pipe dream”, as co-owner Paul Crowe of MPS Racing describes it.
Bolton based Paul, business partner David Enright and retired welder Ian Rigby joined forces with the ‘Ayrshire Tradesmen’ Gary Kennedy and Roger Thompson when trainers John and Sean Quinn bought the son of Bungle Inthejungle for £46,000 at Goffs UK as a yearling.
“We kept 50 per cent of him and were happy to link up with Gary and Roger who we’ve shared a fantastic journey with, thanks to John and Sean who are doing a tremendous job with the horse.”
JM Jungle won on only his second start as a two-year-old at Hamilton but needed 13 more attempts to supplement that success the following year. “He’s just got better as he’s got older,” adds Paul, who runs an engineering company with David.
“He won us a big handicap at York’s Ebor Festival last year off a rating of 88 so we were excited about what he might achieve this season. He’s just got faster and faster and winning the Dash on Derby Day was amazing but we never imagined he would go on to win a Group 2 at Goodwood and be rated 112.”
MPS Racing are no strangers to success with sprinters, having owned Listed winner and Group 1 King’s Stand third Acklam Express, who was ninth in the Nunthorpe three years ago – ironically behind the Quinn-trained super mare Highfield Princess.
They also owned a mare called JM Jackson who went on to foal a son of Mohaather called Big Mojo, who has also developed into a top class sprinter with two Group 3s and a narrow defeat in the Group 1 July Cup to his name.
“We know we’ve probably got to improve another few pounds to be competitive at this level but he’s in the form of his life and we’ll all be on The Knavesmire cheering him on and hoping for another unthinkable result,” adds Paul.
With the progress JM Jungle has made this year this remarkable success story may yet have a few more chapters to be written …
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