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 15 races in the revamped 2024-2025 BGLC-TOBA Millionaires Series for two and three-year-old horses.

The BGLC’s historic $15 million sponsorship, in collaboration with the Thoroughbred Owners and Breeders Association of Jamaica, rewards the winning owner of each race in the four-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 promoting company Supreme Ventures Racing and Entertainment Limited (SVREL).

The BGLC-TOBA $1 million bonus per race is separate and apart from any purse money, or incentive, advertised by SVREL.

In the event that the winning horse of any BGLC-TOBA Millionaires Series race is not qualified for the $1 million bonus, the bonus is carried over and added to the following race in that specific series, creating an even more electrifying atmosphere, further incentivising owners to qualify their horses, through the eligibility-fee route, for what would be a supersized bonus worth millions to the winning owner.

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 two-year-old winners (non-winners of two-races) and Imported two-year-old maidens

October 26 – The Hover Craft Sprint – six furlongs

November 30 – The Mr Sensational – seven furlongs

Millionaires Series 3 (Four races)

Native-bred three-year-old maidens

September 2024 – (date and distance to be decided)

October 2024 – (date and distance to be decided)

November 2024 – (date and distance to be decided)

December 2024 – (date and distance to be decided)

Millionaires Series 4 (Three races)

Native-bred three-year-old 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)

Series Details

This new, rich and exciting four-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 and Four, in particular, were 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 four-part BGLC-TOBA Millionaires Series is that it not only caters for deserving late-bloomers but also significantly rewards early native-bred achievers, who get two bites of the Millionaires’ cherry, should they be able to beat imported maiden runners in either the Hover Craft Sprint or Mr Sensational.

Series One winners taking their chances against Imported Maidens 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.

‘Poor Man’s Derby’

Series 3 for native-bred maidens, fashioned off the concept of what was previously the Governor’s Cup, referred to then as the ‘Poor Man’s Derby’, was strategically placed to begin after the completion of the three-year-old classic season, which closes with the Jamaica Derby on Independence Day, August 6.

Series 3 gives owners of third-string, native-bred, three-year-olds four chances to win a $1 million bonus, rewarding them for continued support of TOBA’s annual sale even though their purchase might not have turned out to be a classic winner.

These rewarding initiatives, by far, make the revamped 2024-2025 BGLC-TOBA Millionaires Series for two and three-year-old horses, native-bred and imported, the most lucrative and far-reaching ever to have been conceptualised in the history of local racing.

TOBA benefits

The aim of the BGLC-TOBA Millionaires Series is to have breeders enter, in sufficient quantity, quality horses at TOBA’s Annual Sale. The goal is to quickly reward owners, incentivising them to maintain their support of TOBA, especially its importation of fillies through the $20 million Jamaica Racing Commission (JRC) Thoroughbred Stimulus Fund, established after the 2023 removal of General Consumption Tax from the importation of horses.

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.

In addition to accessing the $20 million Thoroughbred Stimulus Fund to improve the quantity and quality of horses available for racing and the breeding sheds, TOBA also offers to its members another JRC-funded facility, its Revolving Loan Fund, which, subject to availability and prescreening process, offers 10-month loans to qualified borrowers towards purchases at its Annual Mixed Sale of Thoroughbreds.