That was some twitter spaces that night I was listening to it live
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The money was down, and Constitution River made no mistake
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Harry Cobden was in the Dame there last night.
Jps son drinks there from time to time
Cala Gracioneta looks one for the two mile race in Galway.
Thought he got a funny ride there in tramore.
Heāll eat the hill.
Amateur handicap on the Monday ??
Will need to go up a fair bit in the handicap to get into that.
No thereās one on the Wednesday itās a 0-70 isnāt it?
Just had a look. It was 0-85 last year. Lowest rated runner ran off 67 then.
Used to be lower Iād say?
I remember Colgan had an all the way winner in it for Tony Martin a few years ago.
Paul Nolanās in the last in fairyhouse looks like a plot as well.
Plenty of plots this time of year alright.
A punter weād be wary of has had a good bet with us on Twomeyās in the Fillies group race. This fella would be quite shrewd
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Anybody get this?
Racingās great outsider: Jim Bolger on encounters with Coolmore and other battles
Heāll be 85 this year and heās in the process of selling his beloved Coolcullen yard, but one of Irelandās greatest trainers has no plans to call it a day. In a wide-ranging interview, he talks about never being afraid to stick his head above the parapet.
4th Jul, 2026 - 23 min read
Johnny Ward
contributor
Roughly midway through interviewing Jim Bolger in the Merrion Hotel, near the Dublin residence he owns and stays in once a week, a staff member arrives at our table in a tentative manner befitting the racing trainerās status as a regular.
āJust to let you know, gents: thereās a fire alarm going off shortly for safety purposes.ā
Bolger, unflappable at 84, assures him. āWe wouldnāt move anyway. Donāt be worried.ā
He has long been an iconic outlier in racing, with the credentials of an outsider, but in more recent years he has become a pariah in the eyes of some.
In June 2021, in an interview in the Sunday Independent with Paul Kimmage, he told the former cyclist: āThere will be a Lance Armstrong in Irish racing.ā That interview preceded an Oireachtas Agriculture Committee hearing that Bolger did not attend in the same year.
Paradoxically, Bolger was having one of his best seasons that year. The chair of the committee, Jackie Cahill, said he was āextremely disappointedā that Bolger turned down an invite to discuss his claims of doping in the industry.
Cahill is steeped in the land of Coolmore, where the late Galileo ā the stallion MV Magnier once said was made by Jim Bolger ā was king. As he sells on his iconic Coolcullen stables, Bolger has little love for Coolmore nor John Magnier, the latter fresh from a serious dressing-down from Justice Max Barrett after a rare defeat in a bid for land in Tipperary to New York-based building tycoon Maurice Regan.
To date, Bolgerās claims of drugs in racing have come to nothing, but they have angered others due to the reputational hit that racing endured on the back of them.
John Oxx, Dermot Weld, Kevin Prendergast and Bolger were broadly of the one era ā top trainers you nearly expected to be around forever. Oxx retired in 2023; Prendergast was never going to retire and he passed away aged 92 last summer. Bolger was dwindling into the annals as the 2026 season commenced, only for a home-bred filly ā the highly unlikely Sparan Nua ā to emerge.
Sparan Nua is named after the Irish sparĆ”n nua, ānew purseā (her grandmother was called Unbridled Treasure). She won her first start at 25-1, her second in a swagger to suggest she could be top-rung, and her third in the colours of one Maurice Regan, a fledgling axis of such significance as to be lost on nobody in racing.
āAs someone said on X,ā jokes Bolger, āI didnāt need a new purse after Maurice bought her.ā
Businessman Maurice Regan has horses with Bolger. Photo: Collins Courts
Shortly after Reganās new fillyās Mallow success, the billionaire returned to his native north Kerry and gave a brief interview at Limerick races. I gingerly asked him about his recent appearances in the media.
āI didnāt put myself in the papers. I was just minding my own business,ā he said, before adding: āI stand up for myself. I can. Iām independent in the horse world here. So, I can stand up for myself when I donāt like whatās going on.ā
A complaint about Coolmore
Unbeknownst to the interviewer, Regan had made a formal complaint to Horse Racing Ireland (HRI) about Coolmore, calling on the sportās governing body to investigate its claims that Coolmore effectively banned or restricted his stud Newtown Annerās horses from access to local equine services, including an equine hospital.
Regan alleges that after Magnier lost the case relating to the sale of Barne Estate, Coolmore refused to cover mares from Newtown Anner; that it directed the withdrawal of access to the local equine hospital and veterinary services; and that Joseph OāBrien, who trains Reganās horses, was ārestrictedā from taking on more.
OāBrien, incidentally, has relatively few horses owned by Coolmore and has run 155 individual steeds on the flat alone in Ireland this year; nobody else gets close. At the signature Royal Ascot meet recently, only he challenged his father Aidan for dominance; the British trainers could not get near either.
It became box-office racing gossip when Regan alleged that horses associated with Coolmore enjoyed a āstriking and statistically improbable patternā of āpreferential treatmentā at the start of races.
CoolmoreThe entrance to Coolmore Stud in Fethard, Co Tipperary. Photo: Thomas Hubert
Regan called on HRI to examine this āunusual patternā, claiming it warranted āindependent reviewā. Both HRI and the Irish Horseracing Regulatory Board (IHRB) declined to say whether its officials would meet Regan.
Thus Regan and Bolger became twinned outsiders taking on the behemoth Coolmore, even if one may wonder what motivated either. Neither needs more money; neither needs to achieve more; neither seems burdened by the fear of the majority of people in racing looking down on him and asking to just let things stay as they are.
But Bolger was never one to kneel and genuflect, as the sheep long did before the pulpit ā for all that he has always been a churchgoer (and for years compelled his staff to go, too).
In the Juddmonte Irish Oaks at the Curragh later this month, Sparan Nuaās main foe will likely be the dazzling Thundering On, trained by Joseph OāBrien. The Aussies like to talk but were rendered nearly speechless when Dermot Weld won not one but two Melbourne Cups: it was considered impossible for someone from the northern hemisphere to do that.
And yet OāBrien was a mere 27 years old when he snared the race that stops Australia for the second time in 2020 with Twilight Payment ā a horse whose previous trainer was one JS Bolger. Bolger still owned part of him (a small share, he emphasises). The horse was bred by Bolger; his father was Teofilo, the steed named after the boxer whom Bolger tells The Currency was the most important he ever trained.
Aidan OāBrien ā like Tony McCoy, Willie Mullins, Paul Carberry and others ā was once a young man who worked under Bolger before achieving true greatness in racing. His was and remains a tough school, where discipline was of the time, but learning and wonder manifestly flourished. Sparan Nua may be his parting glass, for all that he never took a drink, something that would have impressed one Aidan OāBrien.
Bolger in conversation with Johnny Ward at the Merrion Hotel, Dublin.
Johnny Ward: You turn 85 this year [on Christmas Day], you are selling Coolcullen. Where are you at?
Jim Bolger: At 84, it is time to tidy up; thatās all I am doing. None of the family was interested in training. Coolcullen is only suitable for training as such because the overhead would be high. The natural thing to do is to sell.
JW: Youāve been there since 1982. Do you feel sad about it?
JB: No. I hope whoever buys it will look after the trees ā I planted about 200,000 over the years including 15 acres of red oak, the only red oak plantation in Ireland. I have known about red oak for quite a while and how spectacular it is in October and November; even in the spring, when it starts becoming yellow, itās beautiful. It is then green for the summer ā spectacular colour most of the year. Weāve had people come not to see the horses but to see the red wood.
JW: Nature is healing.
JB: Itās on a hill and the hill is too steep for horses. I wasnāt going to get into goats so it has worked out well.
Bolger has planted 200,000 trees in Coolcullen, Co Kilkenny, since moving there in 1982.
JW: How would you reflect on four and a half decades there?
JB: Without boasting, it was very successful. I suppose 50 per cent of it was very pleasant, 50 per cent hardship and I suppose thatās good enough. We came out the right side. The hardship is that training isnāt easy. There is nothing easy about it unless, of course, you have five billionaires sharing horses. They buy the best and give it to you to train; all you have to do is train them. For any trainer reliant on public support, or doing it the way we do it ā breeding our own ā there is nothing easy about it. You are very dependent on luck and I have been extremely lucky; for that I am very grateful.
JW: Lucky how?
JB: Definitely very lucky. I met a man once who invented the saying, āthe harder you work the luckier you becomeā ā the golfer Gary Player. We discussed the luck part and he agreed that you have to do the work but if you do not have some good luck it can be very difficult.
The last three years I have had a Guineas horse who never saw the racecourse for various reasons. I had two horses definitely as good as [2021 Guineas winner] Poetic Flare. I have never had a horse break a shoulder on the gallop and one of them did ā out of a couple of thousand and it had to be him. That is not good luck.
JW: Sparan Nuaās father is Dawn Approach and his father New Approach ā two brilliant Guineas winners for you. Yet Sparan Nua is an extraordinary story. It is not as though her family is laden with quality.
JB: Some of that is down to me. The stallions I covered her mother with did not give her much chance. Dawn Approach was the first half-decent sire she got. Because she was an insignificant mare at the time, after the first three or four (offspring) that didnāt turn up, I would not have put much thought into breeding her. Dawn Approach is very convenient being on the same farm. She went to him; there was no scientific reason.
She produced this filly, who was quite weak at the back end. In spring, she was not top of the list starting back. It was late when we got her going. She had been cantering for a while. The first two-year-old I was running, I had nothing to go with her. The lead horse is getting long in the tooth. I knew this one [Sparan Nua] would do that job. She did two bits with the two-year-old. We thought she was OK ā borderline between one to get handicapped and one to win a maiden. The Naas race came up and we went to see where she fits. She told us where she fitted.
JW: Gowran was exceptional on her second start and by the time she won her third start, in Mallow in Cork, she was racing for Maurice Regan.
JB: We know the craic with her. She is still green because she has not done any serious work at home. She has not been learning. She was very green in Gowran and I didnāt think she would be much better in Cork. I knew she would be learning on the job. She is everything but she is not a quick learner.
JW: You went racing in Mallow. You donāt go racing much now. How do people greet you at the races since all the controversy over Lance Armstrong?
JB: Mainly, āYouāre spot onā. āGood to see you stick your head above the parapetā is a regular one. Since I got into racing, I have known that very few people are prepared to stick their heads up. There are two now.
Bolgerās interview with Paul Kimmage of the Sunday Independent in June 2021.
JW: Tell us about the sale of Sparan Nua to Maurice Regan.
JB: We didnāt get together because we are two people not afraid to stick our heads up. It started in a very roundabout way. The whole world wanted to buy her after Gowran. None was interested in leaving her with me.
As luck would have it, I happened to know Maurice Reganās man of business in Dublin for a long time. He phoned me and asked me if I would be interested in selling her but I said on the proviso Iād have to train her. I also said Iād do a partnership.
I asked Maurice after the deal was done how he got onto it and he said he had a friend in Australia who saw the race, phoned him and advised him to buy. It went all around from the southern hemisphere, half way up and back to Ireland ā talk about the bush telegraph.
JW: Youāve said before that pressure is for tyres; did you feel pressure in Mallow after he had bought her? Or relief?
JB: Not so much relief: I was very happy. If someone has that type of money to put down for a horse, there is no great reason for me to feel sorry for him if it doesnāt work. Maybe a slight embarrassment, but thatās about it. Iāve bought yearlings for good prices; I donāt suppose any of their breeders were ever too alarmed or excited when I was going to run them. I did make claims for the filly; I felt she was a Group filly in the making. I had so much confidence in her, there was no pressure.
JW: How did you react to Mauriceās interview on Racing TV and in the Sunday Independent reports of his dealings with HRI and the IHRB?
JB: I understand that has been in gestation for a while.
JW: Were you surprised by it?
JB: I am not surprised.
JW: What is the plan with Sparan Nua now?
JB: All going well in the meantime, I hope to run her in the Irish Oaks, for which she has to be supplemented [added to the race for a fee]. We have had a brief discussion about it. When the time comes Iām sure Maurice will probably be in agreement.
Zero confidence
JW: The allegations you made with Paul Kimmage ā do you regret making them? Do you regret that more did not come out of them?
JB: I have zero confidence in the IHRB. It is ridiculous having a racing headquarters and another sub-division across the road. Thereās a huge saving to be had there and if I were the minister for agriculture, I would be telling the chairman of HRI to get his act together and run racing. That is what HRI should be doing. We do not need two bodies.
I would definitely show gratitude to all the people down the centuries who have given their time ā probably their forefathers too, as the whole thing was so incestuous. I would certainly use their services if they were willing under the new regime, but definitely not the IHRB.
JW: Did you feel like an outcast after it ā or did you feel like that regardless?
JB: No. I would be fairly hard-neck; what people think or say would not concern me too much. I have a number of good friends. I will always have them. And my family, that is all that really matters.
JW: At this stage of your life, are you happy where Irish racing is at?
JB: No. I will only be happy when we take it a bit further. Years back, back in the early ā80s, that was the first time I fired any shots across the bow of the Turf Club, as it was then. It did not make me popular in maybe 80 per cent of racing but that never concerned me because I knew I had right on my side.
I felt I knew what was going to be best for Irish racing, which was a body that turned out to be the Irish Horseracing Authority (IHA). Before it was established, the idea was that all the interested parties in racing would have their feet under the board table ā and that was exactly what happened. I was lucky when I was promoting it that I had the ear of Joe Walsh and Albert Reynolds, God be good to both of them. I got plenty of encouragement from them.
I was appointed to the old racing board some time before 1982; I know where I was when I took the phone call from Charlie Haughey asking me to do it. It was the first time I ever got a call from a taoiseach. We discussed racing and I told him Iād be honoured.
I was not long there when the chairman, Denis Brosnan, came up with what I thought was a hare-brained scheme ā certainly something that did not fit with Denis Brosnan, who has a great record in business and in his own stud farm. He wanted to merge the Turf Club and the Racing Board. Since Joe McGrath set it up, the Racing Board already had a majority of Turf Club members back around the 1940s. Joe was pro the Turf Club. How a freedom fighter ended up in the Turf Club I donāt know: Iāll leave that to some historian!
If you could imagine what that would be like, it meant in effect that even with Denis Brosnan as chairman, he would have a very hard time with the Turf Club people, who had not really turned into the new century ā and this was in the 1980s. Anyway, I knew there would be a vote on it. I got to work on my fellow members of the IHA and I got it down to 50-50, even with the chairmanās vote. I needed one more and everything came down to Margaret Heffernan.
Margaret rowed in behind me, we won the vote and that was the end of it. That never arose again. We subsequently got the Irish Horseracing Authority. The only thing Denis wanted to do merging the two bodies was never going to work but he was brilliant apart from that.
JW: What were your dealings like with CJ Haughey?
JB: I got to know him pretty well. I knew [daughter] Eimear from showjumping. I even showjumped on the Haughey lands. Knowing Eimear well was an entrƩe to Charlie.
We moved to Coolcullen just before Christmas in 1982 and the following year I had two prospective champion three-year-old fillies. One was Give Thanks, the other Flame of Tara. You talk of luck: How lucky was I to have two like that? Iād gone to the December sales in Newmarket to buy Give Thanks. When I was down there looking at her, Ogden White and Tom Cooper were looking at her. I knew Ogden well enough to say I was interested in buying her but if they were to buy her, would he give her to me to train? They bought her and sent her to me. I did not succeed in winning a race as a two-year-old with her, which always gives me hope for fillies I fail to win with at two.
JW: The great Sea The Stars was beaten on debut.
JB: I didnāt realise that. That was only one of two things John Oxx got wrong with Sea The Stars; the other was not running him in the Irish Derby. Otherwise, he did a great job.
John Oxx and the Turf Club
JW: How did you get on with John Oxx?
JB: Iāve a very good relationship with John. We started out as opponents: he didnāt think my ideas were good ideas, nor good for racing ā but he was toeing the Turf Club line. Living in the middle of it in the Curragh, could you blame him? John would be the sort of person who would want an easy life.
He was not going to rock the boat. He and [the late trainer] Ted Curtin did go public on it, and as far as the trainers were concerned, they were satisfied with the status quo. What I was proposing would not be good for racing.
Anyway, after Peter McCreery, God be good to him, died, the chairmanship became vacant around the mid ā80s. John Oxx and I stood in the election. I won that and became chairman of the trainersā association for maybe a year and a half. At the AGM the second year, I had a proposal. The Turf Club rifled the accounts of the stable staff association and used the money to pay the ambulances that were collecting the jockeys, lads already on perhaps 100 grand a year.
I was incensed when I found this out. We could not have that. I knew they were not going to roll over by JSB [Jim S Bolger] asking them. I brought the proposal to the trainersā association but only four supported. The others were not up for the fight. I resigned.
Encounters with Haughey
JW: Back to Charlie.
JB: Yes. Before I moved to Coolcullen, we were in Clonsilla ā if we wanted to move down the road, we were there in 15 minutes. Coolcullen was going to be an hour and a half extra. We were all flying at that stage. I phoned Eimear and asked her if I could have a stable for Give Thanks in Abbeyville the night before we were flying out for a race.
Eimear got a stable for us, all ready ā water and all. I put the filly into the stable and when I was leaving Charlie was out for a walk. We exchanged pleasantries. I think he was taoiseach at the time.
A portrait of Charles Haughey on display. Photo: Alamy
āYouāve probably had a long day,ā Charlie said to me, āare you finished for the evening?ā I said I was coming back about 10 oāclock just in case she needed another bucket of water. āOh donāt worry about that,ā Charlie said, āIāll give water to your filly.ā So I had the taoiseach give water to my filly before a race.
JW: Did you read Gary Murphyās book?
JB: I have all those history books, waiting to be read ā but when I retire.
JW: How would you evaluate Charlieās legacy?
JB: You just have to see the way Ireland, dare I say, is booming now ā and I think he can claim credit for most of the success in financial terms Ireland had. He and Dermot Desmond are responsible for the IFSC and I know very many are concerned about the tax we are getting from the tech companies, but we are better with it than without ā far better.
JW: What regrets do you have about your career?
JB: I have no serious regrets but for the purpose of conversation, Iāve said a few times I should have gotten out after we sold New Approach.
A flawless performance by Teofilo who made it four from four to consolidate his reputation as an exceptional juvenile and an outstanding three-year-old prospect. The quality of this display was readily apparent, since he never looked in danger of defeat from the moment that he took over under two furlongs down, after his pacemaker had done the job to perfection, providing a level pace that allowed him to settle and take up a position that gave him control of the race.
Perhaps the most impressive aspect of his victory was that it was achieved with a turn of foot that took him clear of a six-furlong Group One winner. For a horse who had been generally hailed as a middle-distance horse for next year after his victory in the Futurity Stakes, it was quite something to witness his acceleration this time.
So many possibilities are opened up by this win that it is hard to know where to begin. In the short term, Jim Bolger has to decide whether to call a halt to the season now or to take in another race. It was fascinating to hear him talk in terms of a Dewhurst bid, and refer specifically to Vincent OāBrienās methodology with his two-year-olds. Of course, OāBrien first won the Dewhurst 37 years ago with the great Nijinsky, and though one would not wish to burden this relative youngster with an undue weight of expectation, it may not be ludicrously extravagant to describe him as a potential Triple Crown candidate.
The very aspiration to a Triple Crown has become almost fancifully redundant over the past four decades on account of the way that the modern thoroughbred has developed. However, when one considers Teofiloās position in the ante-post market for the 2,000 Guineas and the Derby, the dream may not be impossible. He is, after all, by Galileo, the sire who gave us the first three horses home in the St Leger earlier this month.
There are many bridges to be crossed before then, and in the first instance it must be more pertinent to ask whether he has the pace to win a Guineas. On this evidence the answer is yes, but there will be many who will still see him as essentially a Derby horse. Stamina is not going to be a problem, and his temperament is ideal. Crucially, he appears to be a very sound horse. The sky is the limit.
ā Alan Sweetman, Racing Post, September 17, 2006
When young sire Galileoās fee was reduced to around ā¬37,000 after he failed to make an early impression, Bolger ā as he has often done, with volatile rates of success ā gambled on an unproven sire. Few Derby winners make stallions these days and it looked like Galileo would be remembered mainly for his heroics on the track.
Two generations before, Vincent OāBrienās investment in his grandfather Northern Dancer would change European racing forever. And Galileo became one of the greatest sires of all time. Two of his sons, Teofilo and New Approach, were bred and trained by Jim Bolger.
New Approach was sold to UAE leader Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoumās Godolphin operation ā specifically running in the colours of his wife Princess Haya, who later asked for a forced marriage protection order in a UK court.
The Jim Bolger-trained New Approach.
JW: New Approach would have been going out on a high?
JB: It would have been a high ā high every way. Oh yeah ā and I should have put the money into property in Dublin when prices were on the floor. But only from a financial point of view, which doesnāt keep me awake at night.
JW: How are your finances now?
JB: Healthy, thank God.
Racehorse trainer Jim Bolger has received āa significant six-figure sum in damagesā from the AIB in settlement of his six-year High Court legal action against the bank for overcharging on his account over a 12-year period.
Mr Bolger launched his legal action against the bank in July 2002 following the discovery of overcharging on his AIB account in 1998. The discovery prompted him to hire consultants to carry out a larger audit of his account dating back to 1986 to assess the full extent of overcharging on his account.
AIB and Mr Bolger reached a settlement of his long-running action yesterday before the full hearing of the case at the High Court in Trim, Co Meath.
Mr Bolger was unavailable for comment. However, a spokesman for the horse trainer said: āHe is pleased to have received a substantial six-figure sum in damages from AIB in relation to this case.ā
A spokeswoman for AIB declined to comment. It is understood that AIB has agreed to pay Mr Bolger more than ā¬320,000 in damages to compensate him for the losses arising from the overcharging.
ā Simon Carswell, The Irish Times, October 8, 2008
JW: Did it ever stress you out when you were struggling for money?
JB: One evening I came home from Gowran Park and it had not been a particularly good day. I got a phone call ā I was surprised to get it ā from a guy I had been dealing with in AIB headquarters. He told me that I owed X amount of money. That time the bank had no limits: if you needed 10 grand, you could write a cheque for it. That was the way with me for years. Iād have the annual meeting with him and [his wife] Jackie might say to me at 10 oāclock the night before: āWhat are you doing there?ā And [laughs] I would say: āIām writing a story for the bank.ā Then I would come away with whatever I wanted ā for a good few years.
Anyway, this guy called me and said my overdraft was far higher than it should be. I asked him how much. I didnāt feel it was excessive. Maybe representing 20 per cent of my assets. Most businesses would be very happy with that. Maybe he regarded racing as high risk; he didnāt know much about racing anyway. He didnāt know much about finance either.
I said to him: āIāll put it right within a month.ā He said: āYouāll put it right within a week.ā I got busy, sold a few horses and gave him the money. My relationship with AIB was fine, I did whatever they wanted. Then I found out they had been screwing me for excess interest on the various loans I had.
I brought in an expert to check it all out. They rifled my account for a fair amount of money. I decided to take them on. The new chairman at the time said ā as plenty of customers were having problems with AIB at the time ā that he wanted anyone with problems to write to him directly, which I did.
I knew someone who knew him in the establishment he used to frequent ā where we are now sitting ā and I told him my problem. He sent a few suits down from Dublin to the Naas branch, maybe four of them. I met them. One of them did not sit down; he kept circling the chairs.
I was more or less blown out; one of them even said by way of intimidation: āIf you hadnāt cashed so many cheques, you would not have a problem.ā So I laughed that one off but to be fair the cheques were not excessive ā you know my lifestyle.
We decided to go to the High Court, which was in Trim. After two or three years, they settled it on the steps of the court. After that I had a part-time job advising all the people that AIB had screwed at the time. I was particularly encouraged by a shopkeeper in Cork who took them on, put everything on the line and won his case.
Glory days
JW: The Teofilo, New Approach days ā did you appreciate those at the time?
JB: I did. Teofilo was the biggest thing that ever happened to me in racing. He was champion two-year-old; we bred him, owned him and trained him. There was huge disappointment when he pulled a ligament before the Guineas. Apparently somebody laid him [a bet he would not win] before the Guineas before word became public, obviously somebody in the yard. Iāve a good idea who it was; he does not work for me anymore.
The biggest concern was that he was a Guineas winner in waiting but, that year anyway, there was no horse in the race in Ireland or England who could have beaten him. I had to continue with him, hoping heād be right for the back end. I did not get him back. I had an arrangement that Kildangan Stud [Sheikh Mohammedās Darley operation] would stand him.
JW: How was your relationship with Darley, Godolphin, Kildangan?
JB: Very good. I regret that they gave up owning horses in Ireland. I donāt think it was a good decision. For starters, they would have part-owned Poetic Flare and a few others. That was the decision they made, and that was it.
āDisappointed in John Magnierā
JW: Do you find it strange that you went from giving all this backing to Galileo when he was looking like a failure as a sire to having, say, not a great relationship with Coolmore?
JB: It doesnāt bother me. I would be disappointed in John Magnier, but not in anything that I did or said about them. I won the National Stakes (in 2017) at the Curragh with Verbal Dexterity. The following year I sent the horseās dam down to [Coolmore stallion] No Nay Never ā and I was giving around ā¬800,000 to ā¬1 million a year to Coolmore some years. For all that, I wouldnāt have been in a hurry paying it.
Some of the Ballydoyle horses had interfered with one of mine. Their also-rans ā to put it very mildly and fairly ā were getting in the way of my horses. It was obvious interference the stewards should have been dealing with but the stewards never came to my rescue. I thought Iād have to do something about it myself.
I told Aidan OāBrien one day at Leopardstown that if it kept happening, I would not be sending any more mares to Coolmore. Aidan denied all knowledge of what I was saying. [OāBrien has always denied any suggestions of team tactics, including at Royal Ascot last month.]
āThe worst case was Teofilo at the Curragh. When Seamie Heffernan was riding the also-ran, he goes upsides Teofilo and brushes off him and tries to set him alight, which he succeeded in doing ā to some extent. In any event, Teofilo finished strongly and won well.
āI said afterwards when I met him: āSeamie, if you want to hassle my horses, you will need a better one than that to do it with.ā Seamie knew bloody well. I am sure he remembers it to this day.
Not that a million in stud fees would bother John Magnier all that much but after I sent the dam of Verbal Dexterity down, she was covered, came home and was empty. By arrangement, we sent her back to have her covered. But they would not cover her. I donāt know what happened. I was told the horse was not available. I have to have some self-respect so she came home and I never sent another mare. I suspect John Magnier did not want to compete with a potentially good progeny of one of their stallions trained by me.
John MagnierJohn Magnier in 2006. Photo: Photocall Ireland
JW: Did you ever find out what happened?
JB: I would have had a very good relationship with the Grassick family, and Christy [of Coolmore] for years. Christy Senior used to train in the park with me. I told Christy what had happened, that it would be the end. He phoned me a number of times to be told I would be welcomed back, but I would not go.
(That episode reminded me of a story about Bolger told by a friend of mine. A lover of hurling and Wexford hurling particularly, the trainer was outside Croke Park one day when my friend approached him and asked why he no longer ran horses at my friendās local track. Bolger recalled that he was twice fined for taking out horses due to run at that track for ground-related reasons and promptly decided never to run any of his there again. Satisfied with the explanation, my friend left Bolger with three complimentary tickets, of a notably high quality, for the match that day.)
JW: What did you make of John Magnierās court case [over Barne Estate]?
JB: If you are talking about property, and it is not in writing, you are as well to be whistling a jig to a milestone. I guess the worst part was the judgeās comments. [Justice Barrett said the evidence provided by Magnierās side was āentirely falseā and ādemonstrably untrueā, adding: āLyingā¦ is what happened here.ā] If he wants to get back from that, he will have to send the whole lot to Saint Vincent de Paul.
Vulgarity in racing
JW: Are you saddened that there are no heirs apparent to Jim Bolger, Dermot Weld, John Oxx and the late Kevin Prendergast?
JB: When Vincent OāBrien used to have the American-bred two-to-one-on shot two-year-olds at the Curragh, I remember saying to somebody: āNothing lasts forever.ā There is no guarantee that things now will be the same in 20 yearsā time. We never had the vulgarity in racing that we have now ā Vincent OāBrien never trained more than 100 horses, Dermot Weld may have topped 150 at times, I had 100. I donāt recall any other trainer having more than 100, except mainly for Dermot.
JW: Vulgarity is a strong word.
JB: I used to be embarrassed if I had three horses in one race: I wouldnāt do it. The only time I would do it was in the Derby in 1992 with St Jovite. I did not have a pacemaker worth a hat of crabs so I put in three, hoping one would at least bring him to the top of the hill.
JW: Are you saddened by the reports of Dermot and Luke Comer? [Over 300 acres of land previously belonging to Dermot Weld have been transferred to the ownership of Comer and his two sons, according to a report in the Sunday Independent].
Trainer Dermot Weld. Photo: Alamy
JB: That just means he sold the farm to Comer. I have not discussed it with Dermot. I would be sorry for him if he is uncomfortable but, on the face of it, if we have surplus land, are we not entitled to dispose of it?
JW: When did you last speak to Aidan OāBrien?
JB: I speak to him on a regular basis. I never did not speak to him. The last time we met we shook hands at the Curragh.
Aidan OāBrien, left, and Jim Bolger with their Wexford Ambassador awards in 2014. Photo: Barry Cregg/Sportsfile
JW: Where is your standing in the trainersā ranks?
JB: I have not been a member of the Irish Racehorse Trainersā Association for about 10 years. People might think I did not want to support Noel Meade in his case against Chris Gordon that time; it had nothing to do with that.
I am a firm believer that the word āfirmā should never appear in the going description. There is no excuse for it. It should be good and safe. I think the jockeys should row in behind that. Thatās what it was all about.
I had communicated with [then head of the trainersā body] Michael Grassick several times, he was going to the Turf Club as it was then, but getting fobbed off. They did not have an interest because pressure has been coming for years from some influential quarters that the going should not be altered ā natural conditions. That would suit a lot of American-bred horses. When it dawned on me nothing would happen, I said I was wasting my money. I think they still bill me for membership once a year!
A new chapter
JW: Do you envisage a young trainer buying Coolcullen?
JB: I have no idea. There are four interested parties. Iād love to see a young trainer get it ā that would be my first preference. Iād even part with it a bit easier to a young trainer. It would keep it in the racing family.
Bolger, at almost 85, says he still hopes to train a 14th Classic winner.
JW: And what next for you when itās sold?
JB: Iāve already gotten permission for Beechy Park, the farm I have in Rathvilly. Iāve a quarter-gallop there. Probably as good a facility as in Coolcullen.
JW: Does a trainer regress with time, does he or she miss things? Was Vincent the same trainer later in life?
JB: I think he was better.
JW: How do you feel, health-wise?
JB: I feel a bit guilty about it.
JW: Could Sparan Nua be the last top horse you have?
JB: Iād hope not. You will see from the advertisement in the property sections that Glebe House, Coolcullen, County Kilkenny is for sale ā and that 57 Group 1 winners were trained there, including 13 Classic winners. Iād hope Iāll get to 14.
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Jim Bolger is a top man.
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4 declared for the Group 2 2yo race at Newmarket, UK trainers are useless, will be whinging next week about there being nowhere to good for all their lovely horses who will be better next year!
Who was it Johnny Dineen said about that, āif heād a good day or a bad day, heād still be drinking Champagne in the Bar after Racingā?
Was it Richard Hannon?
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Hannon.
I think he said he wouldnāt touch a Hannon shortie because your man was always on the beer regardless
Richard Hannon, likes of him have to be having runners in a race like that.
They were an absolutely brilliant operation 15 years ago with 2yos and milers. Tried to buy Classic horses, lost staff, jockey retired. Finished at top level. Night of Thunder being 33/1 in the Guineas probably said a lot about what they knew by then.
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Classic Johnny.
Johnny Ward is a great talent. Thatās the best racing interview in years. Youād read this aul shite of puff pieces in the Racing Post. Ward gets more out of interviewees than any of them.
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