Let's talk about... Jim Bolger and his career highlights

What are your favourite Jim Bolger anecdotes and moments? Share your thoughts with us via racingfeedback@sportinglife.com and they will appear at the foot of the article.

Mike Cattermole - Master trainer and mentor extraordinaire

Although he had been sending out decent winners under both Flat and jumps codes since starting training in 1976, it was his brilliant handling of fillies – something that has never left him – in the early 1980s that began to propel Jim Bolger to the top of his profession.

My Hollow and then Condessa, winner of the Musidora Stakes and Yorkshire Oaks in 1981, were a couple of years ahead of Give Thanks, a personal favourite of mine.

Give Thanks was a remarkably tough filly who barely missed a dance in her Classic season. She raced 10 times during 1983, won the Lancashire Oaks and the Irish Oaks and, earlier in the campaign, had also won the Lingfield Oaks Trial and Musidora Stakes – in the space of just five days.

That was also the year of Flame Of Tara (future dam of Salsabil), who won the Coronation Stakes at Royal Ascot and the Pretty Polly Stakes at the Curragh for the Coolcullen trainer.

Indeed, although continuing to train Graded winners over the jumps, it was with a filly that Bolger first burst onto the British Classic scene, when Jet Ski Lady sprang a huge surprise to take the 1991 Oaks at Epsom at enormous odds of 50/1.

The following year, the brilliant colt St Jovite won the Irish Derby and the King George at Ascot.

In the first decade of this Millennium, Bolger was flying high with superstars such as Teofilo, the unbeaten two-year-old whose career was sadly ended by injury, the super-durable fillies Alexander Goldrun, Finsceal Beo and Lush Lashes, and the outstanding Derby winner New Approach, later sire of his 2000 Guineas winner, Dawn Approach.

Both Lush Lashes and New Approach were by Galileo, a stallion that the ever astute Bolger was quicker than most to place faith in. Bolger himself once said: "John Magnier freely admits that things might have been different if it hadn’t been for me."

The doubt surrounding New Approach even running at Epsom (once announced by the trainer as not going to happen) revealed a quirky side to this fiercely proud, teetotal Irishman who enjoys naming his horses in Gaelic.

Pleascach (meaning 'explosive'), winner of the Irish 1,000 Guineas and Yorkshire Oaks in 2015, is another famous and more recent example.

Yet within his steely manner, which is also characterised by a supreme confidence in his own ability (see above), lies a desert dry sense of humour and a side that bestows great benevolence on others.

With Davy Russell, he founded Hurling For Cancer, which has raised fortunes towards cancer research. He adores his hurling and is a passionate Wexford fan.

He has also mentored and launched the careers of some true greats of the sport, Aidan O’Brien (his assistant for four years), AP McCoy and Paul Carberry being among them. They all refer to his toughness as a taskmaster, but all revere him.

Send us your views

Send in your favourite Jim Bolger horses and other contributions to racingfeedback@sportinglife.com and if you’ve any ideas for more topics you want covering over the coming days and weeks, please let us know.

Feedback from readers

Jim Frater, San Francisco: Hi Sporting Life. I loved Mike Cattermole’s piece so here’s my feeling on the great Jim Bolger. As a racing fan, I hadn’t paid much attention to Irish racing until I met a relative of Jim through work in 1990. What a great year to start following him that turned out to be when Jet Ski Lady @50/1 gave me money and bragging rights after the 1991 Oaks. From that day to this, Jim Bolger is a trainer I carefully watch daily for his runners. To me he is a blend of two of my other favourite trainers, the shrewdness of Luca Cumani, and the “let them run” mentality of Mark Johnson. Although I followed both Cumani and Bolger’s horses, sometimes to the detriment of my bank balance, I just knew another big pay day was round the corner. Beyond the on-track performances, I also marvelled at their influence on racing. Bolger’s breeding operation trumps Cumani’s Fittocks Stud, but Luca may just pip Jim in a photo finish on jockeys and trainers who have been mentored to success. For a lifelong punter, now one has retired, the other keeps me coming back for more, always looking for that next Jet Ski Lady.

Ray Manning: A great trainer of horses and men. Once famously asked on TV after saddling a winner, "Well Jim ,did you feel any pressure coming into the race ? No,not at all,pressure is only for tyres!"

John Moran, Ireland: Jim’s great talents transcend racing, to show jumping in which he competed and which gave him his earliest financial start through selling “winners”. Clearly an expert in the wider field of Finance, his profession before training, he took on his bank for overcharging and won a “six figure settlement” in 2008.

Jim is a proper moral man who treats people hard but decently. He is always immaculate in person and so are his stables his gallops which true to character he choose as green fields for their toughness. Following his first win in a small race at very much a lesser track, Roscommon, (also the start point for Gordon Lord Byron’s amazing career) he is said to have modestly mused “maybe I can crack this”. It is said that he sought out the advice of the great M V O’Brien.

In breeding New Approach his banking on Galileo at the beginning of that horse’s stud career was a new approach (hence the name) to breeding that could have left him very much worse off financially. Thankfully, it worked out spectacularly.

A great moral man at all levels.

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