WHAT a sad piece of news to emerge from Co Carlow on Wednesday, when it was revealed that the leading National Hunt sire Jukebox Jury had died, the result of complications following colic. He was 19, and his demise comes on the back of an outstanding National Hunt season which had seen him sire three Grade 1 winners.

Jukebox Jury’s percentage of blacktype horses to runners shows that quality always trumps quantity, and many of his big race winners came from crops much smaller than those of recent years. His stock was always in demand at the sales, and at the most recent store sales, many buyers cited his ability to sire quality as a key attraction.

Announcing the stallion’s passing, Burgage Stud owner Victor Connolly said: “It is with sadness that we announce that Jukebox Jury has been euthanised due to complications following colic surgery. From his very first season at Burgage Stud, when he sired Farclas to win a Grade 1 at Cheltenham, Jukebox Jury has been a continual success story. He is now the sire of six Grade or Group 1 winners.

“We would like to thank his shareholders and the breeders who supported him, especially those who sent mares early in his Irish stud career. Apart from his great ability as a top stallion, we shall all miss him terribly as he was a kind horse, with a curious and intelligent nature. He was such a lovely horse to have anything to do with.”

Jukebox Jury stood his first five seasons at Gestüt Etzean in Germany before he was acquired and moved to Ireland. His fee this season was a high of €12,500, reflecting the consistent upward trajectory of his stallion career. His death follows that of Burgage’s Shantou four years ago. That son of Alleged (Hoist The Flag) covered until he was 27 under the care of Victor Connolly and his family. Connoly could have reasonably hoped for another five years or more with Jukebox Jury.

Bred in the purple

JUKEBOX JURY is a son of Montjeu, himself a brilliant racehorse who became one of the best sire-sons of the phenomenal Sadler’s Wells (Northern Dancer). The Coolmore sire was an outstanding source of Derby-type horses and, although only 16 when he too died, he made a significant contribution through his stallion sons.

Authorized, Camelot and Motivator are among those to supply top-level winners on the flat, but the Montjeu branch of the line has made an even stronger impact with jumpers.

If he was only to be remembered as the sire of Walk In The Park and Jukebox Jury, he would have achieved enough, but others of his sons to enjoy success at stud include Fame And Glory, Masked Marvel, Joshua Tree, Scorpion, Papal Bull, and Leading Light. Authorized has shone under both codes, and his Grade 1 winners over jumps include Tiger Roll, Nichols Canyon and I Am Maximus.

On the dam side, Jukebox Jury was the best of 10 winners from his Kenmare (Kalamoun) dam Mare Aux Fees. She bred four other blacktype winners, her daughter Belle Allure (Numerous) winning at Group/Grade 3 level in France and the USA.

Belle Allure’s winners in Japan include Admire Lead (Stay Gold), successful in the Victoria Mile. Jukebox Jury’s once-raced half-sister Maternelle (Machiavellian) made her mark by producing a pair of National Hunt blacktype winners in Ireland, Grade 2 winners Lieutenant Command (Kendargent) and Some Neck (Yeats).

New ground

Jukebox Jury broke new ground in 2020 as the sire of the popular Group 1-winning mare Princess Zoe.

The Prix du Cadran heroine is not the only prolific flat winner or six-figure earner he supplied, and his tally of blacktype winners on the level is in double figures. Of course, Princess Zoe was not his first star, though her emergence only served to broaden Jukebox Jury’s appeal.

A month after Jukebox Jury commenced covering here, he delivered the sort of boost that a stallion master could only dream about. Farclas triumphed in the Grade 1 Triumph Hurdle at the 2018 Cheltenham Festival, while the previous December Jukebox Jive was a 13-length winner of a Grade B handicap hurdle at Navan in December. These wins saw the stallion’s book of mares double from what it had been in Germany, and that momentum never stopped since.

Jukebox Jury was bred by Paul Nataf, and consigned by Peter Kavanagh’s Kildaragh Stud at Arqana where he sold for €270,000 to Mark Johnston. He travelled the world, winning the Group 1 Preis von Europa and dead-heating for victory in the Group 1 The Irish Field St Leger. He was Group 1-placed as a two-year-old in the Racing Post Trophy, and won seven pattern races during his career.

His best runners were very good

LAST season saw Jukebox Jury achieve a new milestone, when his progeny won more than £1 million for the first time, and signs are that this is just the first of many such high-ranking positions he will enjoy in the years to come.

A particular highlight of last season’s racing was the performances of the unbeaten mare Bambino Fever. A point-to-point winner, she started four times in bumpers for Willie Mullins, and danced every dance. She went from winning a Grade 2 at the Dublin Racing Festival, to landing the Grade 1 Weatherbys Champion Bumper at Cheltenham. As meritorious as that win was, she kept the best for her Grade 1 success at Punchestown. The Geoffrey Thompson-bred five-year-old is a hugely exciting prospect for this season.

Bred in France, Il Etait Temps returned from a year’s absence from the track to win the Grade 1 Celebration Chase at Sandown, and his £100,000 winnings were a key to ensuring that Willie Mullins retained his trainer’s championship crown last season in Britain. This was a fifth win at the highest level for the gelding, making him his sire’s best performer to date. He is already one of the favourites for the 2026 Champion Chase at Cheltenham.

Another great advertisement for Jukebox Jury as a sire was last April’s Aintree Grade 1 Mersey Novices’ Hurdle winner Honesty Policy, and he failed by just half a length to double his tally at the top table at Punchestown. Trained by Gordon Elliott for J.P. McManus, he was bred by Harry Fowler, Alex Frost and Charlie Longsdon, and is a runner who improves his rating with each start he makes.

Princess Zoe became a social media hit, as well as being a high-class racemare, when Tony Mullins took her to racing’s peak with victory in the Group 1 Prix du Cadran in France.

She had Stradivarius back in fourth when running second to Subjectivist in the Group 1 Gold Cup at Royal Ascot. Eight of her nine wins were on the flat, and her final victory was in a Punchestown maiden hurdle. Gestüt Hony-Hof bred Princess Zoe.

Finally, bred and raced by Michal Kochan under the banner of his company K-K Metal A.S., Stuke met a sad end to a great racing career when he fell in the Velka Pardabicka. He was one of the best hurdlers in Italy and won a pair of Grade 1 races there, including the Gran Corsa Siepi di Merano Hurdle.