POETIC JUSTICE
Brilliant Bolger: Most complete racehorse I’ve ever had
JIM BOLGER toasted “the complete package” as Poetic Flare sprang a 16–1 2,000 Guineas shock to return the irrepressible 79–year–old to the Classic spotlight.
Even by the standards of his amazing training career, this success – gained under son-in-law Kevin Manning, 54, in the colours of Bolger’s wife, Jackie – was out of the ordinary.
Not only did he breed the winner, but also Poetic Flare’s sire, Dawn Approach – whom Bolger saddled to victory in the Newmarket Classic eight years ago – as well as training his dam, Maria Lee, and her mother, Elida.
“He’s the complete package – you couldn’t find a fault with this horse,” said Bolger, speaking from his Co Carlow base, after watching Poetic Flare prevail by a short head from Master Of The Seas.
“He’s the most complete racehorse that I’ve ever had.”
Bolger (below) spent the weeks leading up to the first Classic agonising over whether to run Poetic Flare, whose sole defeat from four starts came with a 10th in Newmarket’s Dewhurst Stakes in October, or his 2020 Vertem Futurity Trophy hero – and Derby hope – Mac Swiney.
“We can’t separate the two of them in our own minds,” admitted Bolger.
“I just felt that this fellow had been to Newmarket before, and that was what swayed me. I seldom run two – maybe occasionally if I want to give somebody else a ride – but normally I just go with one.”
Bolger, savouring glory in his fifth British Classic – the first since Dawn Approach’s Guineas in 2013 – went on: “It means the world.
“To my mind, the 2,000 Guineas at Newmarket is the best race in the world and, when you win one of those, you’ve really done something.
“I don’t mind admitting it’s very necessary – the way I live here, it’s high risk. For me to stay in business, I need a really top horse every few years.
“I’m not going to have one every year, and I know that – isn’t it eight years since we won the Guineas? – so those kind of horses don’t come along very often.”
Having captured the first Guineas of 2021, Bolger unveiled an ambitious plan of attack on the French version, the Poule d’Essai des Poulains at ParisLongchamp on May 16 – and the Irish 2,000 Guineas at the Curragh six days later.
He added: “I’ve been thinking all along, if ever there was a horse to win three Guineas, this could be the horse.”
Mac Swiney is due to return in the Group 3 Derrinstown Stud Derby Trial at Leopardstown next Sunday, and will give Bolger a second Cazoo Derby triumph – after New Approach in 2008 – if he wins at Epsom on June 5.
“You mean ‘when’!” laughed Bolger.