Madame Jones, a daughter of New York sire Lycius, has racked up quite a season in England in 2001 and will bid for is believed to be a national record this weekend when she tries for her 12th handicap race victory at Wolverhampton.

Madame Jones has made a remarkable 56 starts so far this season, and a victory in one more handicap race will break a record dating back to the 19th century that she currently shares with Misty Morn and Honesty.

Overall, Madame Jones has won 12 of 56 starts this season, including back-to-back wins on December 1 and December 8 at Wolverhampton, although the latter victory did not come in a handicap race. She has won 15 of 88 career starts and has earned $96,488.

"It's really quite a story," said Donna Janis, manager of B. E. Stables, which stands Lycius at Mill Creek Farm near Stillwater. "We started to do some promotional work for Lycius and knew nothing about Madame Jones. Then one day we got a contract from someone in Virginia that wanted to breed to the sire of Madame Jones."

Trained by David Evans, Madame Jones has run at least three times in each month of 2001, including seven starts in September alone. She enjoyed her most productive month in February, winning four of five starts.

Lycius, a 13-year-old son of Mr. Prospector, was relocated from Florida by B. E. Stables earlier this year to stand next season at Mill Creek Farm. He had previously stood in Ireland and Australia before being purchased to stand at Stoneriggs Farm near Ocala prior to the 2000 season.

Lycius has sired 21 stakes winners during his career, including nine group/graded winners, for progeny earnings of $7,650,526 through Tuesday. He is the sire of Group 1 winner Hello (Ire) and stakes winners Self Feeder (Ire), Miss Universal (Ire), Khasayl (Ire), Ivan Luis, and Media Nox (GB).—Tom Law