UNIONVILLE, Pa.--Barnavera (Ire), owned by Alpha Racing, a small Irish syndicate that includes Russell Jones of Unionville, won the G1 Prix de l'Opera in France on Sunday, Oct. 5.

Barnavera winning Prix de l'Opera"It was the best day of my racing life," said Jones.

Barnavera, a 3-year-old by Calyx out of a Kentucky Dynamite mare, won the 11/4 mile, 587,000 Euro Stakes for fillies and mares 3 and up at Paris Longchamps by a neck in a driving finish.

"We bought her two years ago as a yearling for 85,000 Euros," said Jones. "She won as a 2-year-old and a 3-year-old. She's now won a G3, a G2 and a G1. This was her first race outside of Ireland."

Alpha Racing is a small syndicate that operates in Ireland.

"We started the syndicate about five or six years ago," said Jones. "We started it after my good friend Johnny Harrington died. A group of his friends got together to start the syndicate. There's between 15 and 20 in the syndicate every year."

 

"JOHNNY'S widow Jessica Harrington has been our trainer ever since we started." he said. "We buy between eight to 10 yearlings every year, race them and then sell them as 3 year olds. We've bought four already this year."

Russell Jones with Barnavera "Most of the syndicate members were in France for the race," said Jones. "My daughter Jennifer was in France and came to the races. It was unbelievable."

The Prix de l'Opera is a "win and you're in" for the Breeders Cup, but Jones said Barnavera will not run in this year's Breeders Cup.

"She's going to the sale at Newmarket in December," he said.

Jones started his career with horses as an amateur jockey in steeplechase racing, riding successfully at all major hunt meets as well as agianst professionals at Belmont when steeplechase and hurdle races were run there every week.

He started Walnut Green with his brother Richie and built it into one of the most successful sales agencies in the market.

During that time, he also bred and raced a few, including a filly that won the Barbara Fritchie. 

Jones said that his previous best moments in racing were winning the Maryland Hunt Cup on his Jacko and having Union Rags, owned by Phyllis Wyeth, a horse whose career he was closely associated with, win the Belmont Stakes.

 "It was hard to equal those two, but this did it," said Jones. "This was one of the highlights of my life involved with horses."