The BGLC-TOBA Juvenile Dash, set for Betting Gaming and Lotteries Commission (BGLC) Day at Caymanas Park, Emancipation Day, Thursday, August 1, 2024, is the first of 11 races in the revamped 2024-2025 BGLC-TOBA Millionaires Series for two and three-year-old horses.
The BGLC’s historic $11 million sponsorship, in collaboration with the Thoroughbred Owners and Breeders Association of Jamaica, rewards the winning owner of each race in the three-part series with a $1 million bonus, providing the winning horse was entered, sold, nominated or passed through any TOBA sale of the preceding year or, in the case of three-year-olds, two years prior.
Should owners of horses not entered, sold, nominated or passed through any such TOBA sale, desire to compete for the $1 million bonus, a $150,000 eligibility fee must be paid to TOBA before the close of entry for each race.
As such, if the bonus-eligibility fee is not paid, any horse not entered, sold, nominated or passed through a TOBA sale, would only be competing for purse money, or incentive, as advertised by SVREL.
The BGLC-TOBA $1 million bonus per race is separate and apart from any purse money, or incentive, advertised by promoting company Supreme Ventures Racing and Entertainment Limited (SVREL).
MILLIONAIRES SERIES 1 (SIX RACES)
Two-Year-Olds, native-bred maidens
August 1 – The BGLC-TOBA Juvenile Dash – three furlongs straight
October 21 – BGLC-TOBA Heroes Sprint – five and a half furlongs
November 9 – BGLC-TOBA Jamboree Sprint (Jamaica Cup Day, the eve of TOBA’s Annual Mixed Sale set for Sunday, November 10) – six furlongs
***Three races in December (dates and distances to be confirmed)
MILLIONAIRES SERIES 2 (TWO RACES)
Native-bred and Imported two-year-olds (winners and maidens)
October 26 – The Hover Craft Sprint – six furlongs
November 30 – The Mr. Sensational – seven furlongs
MILLIONAIRES SERIES 3 (THREE RACES)
Native-bred three-year-olds winners (non-winners of two-races) and Imported three-year-old maidens
January 2025 – (date and distance to be decided)
February 2025 – (date and distance to be decided)
April 2025 – (TOBA weekend - date and distance to be decided)
This new, rich and exciting three-part series of races underwent a careful process of consultation with SVREL’s racing office and horsemen. In every instance, the horse population and readiness of runners were factors taken into consideration to, as best as possible, not extract entrants from traditional big-purse races while striving to attract maximum starters worthy of competing for a $1 million bonus.
Series Three, in particular, was added on the appeal of owners and trainers, who would have invested heavily in not only local-bred horses but also imported animals, who might not have developed sufficiently as two-year-olds in time to compete in Series 1 or 2.
The most thrilling aspect of the three-part BGLC-TOBA Millionaires Series is that it not only caters for deserving late-bloomers but also significantly rewards early nativebred achievers, who get two bites of the Millionaires’ cherry, should they be able to beat imported runners in either the Hover Craft Sprint or Mr. Sensational.
Series One winners taking their chances against Imported runners in Series Two could possibly win $2 million for their owners in the BGLC-TOBA Millionaires Series before heading into the richest two-year-old race of the season, the $4 million Jamaica Two-Year-Old Stakes on Boxing Day.
The revamped 2024-2025 BGLC-TOBA Millionaires Series for two and three-yearold horses is, by far, the most lucrative and far-reaching ever to have been conceptualised in the history of local racing.
The aim and goal of the BGLC-TOBA Millionaires Series is to have breeders enter in sufficient quantity, quality horses at TOBA’s Annual Sale, afterwards quickly rewarding owners, incentivising them to maintain their support of TOBA, especially its importation of fillies through the $20 million Jamaica Racing Commission Horseracing Stimulus Fund.
It is through this fund that TOBA embarked in 2023 to purchase 10 Canada-bred fillies, who, it is hoped, along with others imported privately, will make their way to the breeding sheds after their racing careers are over to start a rejuvenation of the local-breeding industry and horse racing in general.
