Telepathique, a mare that David and Elizabeth Gordon Lennox failed to receive any interest in when offering her at the sales, has repaid the family in untold ways already.

There have been six victories, almost £90,000 in prize-money and perhaps, just as astonishingly, an even greater amount of Great British Bonuses.

The seven-year-old soared higher still on fairly home soil, earning Bury St Edmonds-based Elizabeth Gordon Lennox the honour of February’s TBA Breeder of the Month with a commanding victory in the Listed Lady Protectress Mares’ Chase at Huntingdon.

“The story began when we bought the mare, Rhetorique, from David Futter,” she explains.

“We sent her to Gentlewave a couple of times and finally to Telescope, then we sent the foal to Doncaster but there wasn’t a single bid.

“So we held onto her and sent her to Jamie Goss, who breaks horses near Banbury. We’d sent him one before that he hadn’t been impressed with but straight away he said, ‘This is a good one’.

The Gordon Lennoxes, who have military and farming connections, have known trainer Lucy Wadham and her husband Justin from the days their point-to-pointers would spend summers on their land.

The connection has continued with Banjo Girl, who was third in a Listed hurdle at Cheltenham’s April meeting back in 2018.

“We’ve shared a horse called Trincomalee with Hot To Trot, who have made it very fun, and Lucy is a lovely person to have horses with, she has done very well with all of them,” Gordon Lennox continues.

“If you look at Telepathique’s page, almost every horse on it has big black-type, some of it in France and it’s still producing. I showed it to Justin Wadham and he said he hadn’t seen many pages like it. So it’s all there in her breeding.”

Telepathique won a bumper and a novice hurdle but had been absent for almost a year before making a stunning debut over fences at the end of October in a handicap qualifier for the Queen Boudicca Series.

She had found herself some new fans.

“Fakenham really do look after you and the first time she ran there, it was half-term,” says Gordon Lennox.

“We took the grandchildren, gave them each a five-pound ticket and they each won 20 quid. They couldn’t believe it, couldn’t wait to go shopping. They’re only seven and five but I’m afraid they’re gamblers for life!”

“She won by 11 lengths and Tom Cannon was looking round to see where everyone was. She ended up winning the final, winning at Warwick and got the black-type.”

Even after the Lady Protectress, where Telepathique defeated the reigning champion and smart Irish mare Brides Hill, Gordon Lennox can see further improvement to come.

“She hadn’t raced right-handed before Huntingdon, so she was wasting time jumping to the left,” she said. “Tom has ridden her most of the time, he’s got lovely hands and gets on beautifully well with her.

“She doesn’t need a lot of schooling and although she jumps quite low, she gains at every fence.”

A particular pleasure for the couple has been having Telepathique back on their farm on her holidays.

Although Rhetorique moved on, they are also breeding from the unrelated Banjo Girl.

“We both used to hunt, David used to go in the cross-country races, and horses have always been in our lives,” says Gordon Lennox.

“The colours are my father’s from when he was point-to-pointing in the Army and thankfully they hadn’t been taken. We’ve still got the original woollen ones, a bit moth-eaten, but they’re still there!”

Gordon Lennox does admit that, when she had asked Wadham in passing at the start of the season whether she might have anything for Cheltenham, the reply was that Telepathique was about the only one she had in mind.

This modest and somewhat overwhelmed owner-breeder was never thinking that far ahead.

“I’ve had messages from friends all over saying well done, it’s given a lot of people a lot of fun. It’s a dream come true really, the whole thing,” she says.

“Another wonderful thing about all this is the GBB [£100,000 in bonuses won]. She’s has paid for herself not only this year, last year but several more years.

“We’ve had our horse account for about 30 years and this is probably the first time it’s ever been in the black!