SWINEY FEVER!

MAC SWINEY is 16/1 for next year’s Derby after returning Jim Bolger to the Group 1 limelight in Doncaster’s Vertem Futurity Trophy.

The son of 2008 Epsom hero New Approach takes his name from

Terence MacSwiney, the Irish playwright and politician who, as Sinn Fein Lord Mayor of Cork during the Irish War of Independence, died in Brixton Prison exactly 100 years ago today after a 74-day hunger strike.

The 12/1 shot, under Bolger’s son-in-law Kevin Manning, beat 6/4 One Ruler by just under a length.

Bolger (above) – whose last win at the top level came via Verbal Dexterity in the National Stakes at The Curragh in 2017, said: “We will start him over a mile, but we think he’s a Derby horse.”

Bryony Frost and Frodon – winners of the Ryanair Chase at the 2019 Cheltenham Festival – defied top weight in the Matchbook Betting Exchange Handicap Chase at Cheltenham, to earn a 25/1 quote for the Gold Cup next March.

Trainer Paul Nicholls confirmed: “That will be the target.”