“My first flat season here was 2007 and we had a May evening meeting. It was quite busy on the corporate end that time. There had been three races over the six-furlong start before I got down to the parade ring and he won the three of them.
“I was going down the stairs thinking ‘This fella is going to think this place is top-notch and we’re all brilliant.’ I went down and congratulated him.
“‘Thank you’ he says, ‘but I need to have a quiet word with you. The six furlongs’ he says. ‘I’m not happy with it. It won’t do Tom. I’m just telling you straight.’
“‘But Jim’ I says, ‘you’re after winning the three races out of there tonight. I thought you’d think it was the best patch of ground in the world!
“‘No’, he says. ‘Those undulations have to go.
“We need this track to rise up and you won’t get there until you sort that.’”
It was typical of the trainer. He wasn’t being critical for the sake of it but a better track would be beneficial to every stakeholder.
The Irish Field, September 24, 2016
IT has always paid to listen when Jim Bolger speaks. Tom Ryan had the good sense to understand this truth and Naas Racecourse benefited as he immediately set about rectifying the course topography.
We are no different in this parish. As usual, there isn’t a question that has been batted away by the Master of Glebe House, Redmonstown Stud and Beechy Park, and the form is genial, just minutes after his debutant Agitare has been denied on the nod in the opening maiden at Leopardstown on Thursday night.
As a son of his former champion two-year-old Teofilo, who rewarded Bolger’s support of a young stallion called Galileo, it would have been another little notch on a remarkable story of self-made success.
The failures are wrapped into that too of course but he has never been one for extremes of emotion. Except perhaps when Wexford are playing, though even then it is largely internal. The Yellowbellies ended a 15-year drought as Leinster champions this year before falling short by two points to Tipperary in the All-Ireland semi-final.
“They were very gritty in the Leinster final and toughed it out well. I thought Seán Murphy going off was the turning point in the semi-final. He was mopping up a lot of ball there around the half-back line and that’s where the scores came from.
“I won’t be saying like John Mullane – ‘I loves me county’ – but that’s what it is. It is primal. And it’s great for a county when it has something to celebrate.
“Look at Offaly. This year, they didn’t have hurling or football but they had Shane Lowry. And then they have Michael Duignan on the telly!”
Duignan was a star of Offaly teams of in the ‘90s and will be lining out in the Hurling For Cancer Research charity match at St Conleth’s Park, Newbridge at 6pm on Tuesday.
The clash between Davy Russell’s Best and Jim Bolger’s Stars has become a summer staple now and where once, it was an opportunity for racing people to tog out for a game, it is now as strong an exhibition as you will ever see.
List of achievements
Even in the jam-packed CV of a man with a breed-to-own-to-train model on a scale replicated by no-one else in the world, the success of this venture ranks highly in his list of achievements.
In seven years, the event has raised a staggering €840,000 and not a penny of that has gone on expenses. Bolger and Russell fund the advertising, while Bolger’s daughter Úna Manning, HRI marketing guru Barbara White and his own All-Ireland-winning staff member James Dowling are key cogs.
JJ Delaney, Brendan Cummins, Jamie Barron, Cian Boland, Shane Dowling, Ashling Thompson, Ursula Jacob, Damien Fitzhenry, Jackie Tyrrell, Lee Chin and Eddie Brennan are just some who will be togging out, while Willie Mullins, Rich Ricci, Pat Smullen, A.P. McCoy, Miriam O’Callaghan, Síle Seoige, Micheál Ó Muircheartaigh and Seán Bán Breathnach will be filling a variety of roles. Dublin footballer Ciarán Kilkenny, a keen racing enthusiast, has said he will fill a car and make the short trip down.
“We never envisaged it would get to where it has gotten to. The first evening we were going there I said to Jackie just coming into Newbridge, ‘Will there be anybody here?’ And we had about 1,500. Then TV and radio got interested in it and we were away then after that.
“It started off with jockeys and stable staff and stud farms, and also people working in the industry. I’m not sure who cheated first but, anyway, county players began to appear. I would think that it was probably Davy because he had Mikey Fogarty and he brought in Lee Chin and a few of the Wexford fellas for Davy. That was the start of it!”
The tongue is lodged figuratively in the cheek here, for the quality of fare and participant has increased the attraction of the game. Last year they had the winners of 90 All-Ireland medals and 60 All-Stars out on the pitch.
Davy Russell is presented with the cup by, from left, Jim Bolger, CEO of the Irish Cancer Society, Averil Power and former jockey Freddy Tylicki after the seventh annual Hurling for Cancer Research game, a celebrity hurling match in aid of the Irish Cancer Society at St Conleth’s Park, in Newbridge. The final score was: Davy Russell’s Stars 5-20 to Jim Bolger’s Best: 6-12. Photo by Piaras Ó Mídheach/Sportsfile
Helping the less fortunate has always been a key element to the Bolger philosophy. Taking in troubled teenagers from the Moyross area in Limerick on work placements is just another example, though one with far less fanfare.
It came about through incoming Curragh CEO Pat Keogh, who introduced him to the Moyross parish priest at that time, Fr Tony O’Riordan.
“I had great admiration for what the man was doing. I met some of the young fellas and told them I could give them summer jobs. So he sent up four anyway – the four of them, I think, stayed the full summer and some of them came back. We don’t have any of them at the moment because he moved on.
“The next time I heard of him he was on the Jordanian/Syrian border. That’s a long ways from Limerick. The last young fella that we had - he went on to third level, I think.”
It is acknowledged that Keogh has a considerable task ahead of him to wipe away the destructive impact of constant negativity surrounding the Curragh, to create a connection with the locals and to eradicate the perception that the experience of the general public is unimportant.
“Firstly, it will be the same mantra from me. ‘Pat, I don’t want to see any firm in the ground. And if you’ve firm in the ground you won’t have runners.’ Nobody was prepared to stick their head above the parapet last year; most of the trainers, with one or two exceptions, said the ground was lovely here at Leopardstown.
“We had terribly fast ground for Champions Weekend at Leopardstown and the Curragh. I had three horses sidelined between the two meetings. They weren’t broken down or anything. But they ended up as riding horses. They couldn’t race again.
“They all have watering systems and plenty of water. It just means you have to work harder at it. When I want to work horses on grass at home we spend the night watering it the night before. We always try to have it good-to-yielding. Make it safe. Racecourses have far greater resources than I do, in terms of manpower and money. There’s no excuse for it.”
What about the Curragh though?
Delivered
“In fairness to (former CEO) Derek McGrath and I’ve said it to him: he delivered the project. From a personal point of view and I’ve been around a few building projects myself, having built a training centre and a stud farm, I would not have taken that job on.
“But I’d be critical of the architects. I’d start with the urinals. I mean there’s a formula there for that. They made a similar mistake at Longchamp. There must be something about urinals and architects. I have a feeling that architects are a little bit like classical musicians.
“They like to do it ‘my way’ and there aren’t too many architects that you see racing. They should be a little bit more humble and be prepared to take advice.
There were a couple of monumental cock-ups that just shouldn’t have happened – the parade ring and the owners’ and trainers’ bar being others.
“Racing, by its very nature, is upstairs-downstairs. We have to play second-fiddle to Coolmore, the Aga Khan and Khalid Abdullah, but we don’t go around whinging about it. We just have to get on with it. When I was a racegoer from 15 to 34 and I was fairly able-bodied, I still liked to be able to sit down and have the cup of tea. It’s a basic requirement. I think if somebody is prepared to pay for their comfort they’re entitled to it.”
He agrees that more needs to be done to increase attendances and that the backing of the local community is critical. But part of the problem he maintains, is that there are too many racecourses.
“I went on record years ago saying that you don’t need three racetracks in Kerry – it’s a joke. You need one state-of-the-art. The same with Wexford, Gowran and Tramore – one state-of-the-art. Sligo, Ballinrobe and Roscommon. But you talk about closing down any of those and the phones would be hopping in Leinster House.”
He is in favour of the proposal to have a second all-weather track in Ireland but not a brand new facility.
“Well I met the Dundalk people at Michael Fortune’s funeral and we were talking about it afterwards. And they were saying: ‘Well, you never come to Dundalk.’ And I said: ‘No, I haven’t been there yet.’ But I said: ‘When ye lay the new surface I’ll be up.’ It’s fairly tired now at the moment.
“The second all-weather should be on an existing track. The one I would favour is Gowran. Not because they’re my neighbours but on the outside of the track at Gowran it would be a terrific spectacle. They’d be running at the other side of the hedge there. And I gather they’d be up for it as well.”
Jim Bolger receiving the Connolly’s Red Mills and The Irish Field Breeder Of The Month for September 2017 Award for Verbal Dexterity from Niamh Connolly \ Photo.carolinenorris.ie
Dundalk has been used in the past by former Bolger protégé Aidan O’Brien in preparation for racing on synthetic and dirt tracks in America. Bolger himself has never been attracted to the US scene and would definitely not be bringing a horse to Santa Anita for the Breeders’ Cup in November had he one good enough to travel, given the appalling number of equine fatalities that have taken place at the California venue in the past year.
“I’d always have a problem with the drugs. I’d say global standardisation will happen in relation to that. It has to happen.
“They should never have taken up the synthetic surfaces. The dirt trainers in America, some of the very prominent ones, were the ones that led the cause for that. And they had them taken up. Then they had a huge number of breakdowns. The synthetics or all-weathers, they compare much more favourably from an accident point of view than the dirt tracks. That was a huge mistake.”
The whip is another layer to the welfare issue and one that is much more local. Would he be in favour of banning it? Or is it ludicrous?
“I think it was a big mistake to say you could hit a horse a number of times.
“They could have hauled jockeys in, there could have been an unwritten rule there – you can hit a horse eight times or whatever. But putting it in print was a mistake.”
Jim and Jackie Bolger with Twilight Payment \ Healy Racing
HE IS phlegmatic about a campaign that to date hasn’t pulled up any trees, though he is still sixth in terms of winners and prize money, with 27 winners and €693,983 before Leopardstown last evening.
“It’s an ordinary season for me. The two-year-olds have taken their time coming to hand but I have nice two-year-olds. We had one at Naas the other evening (Geometrical) that was second and this fella (Agitare) and more to come.
Our two-year-olds last year weren’t good, in the main, so we weren’t going to have good three-year-olds then. But it will be like that with me. If I can hit on a proper horse every two, three or four years – that keeps the show on the road.
“Or else, I need to have a good level throughout the yard. Since Dawn Approach now, we had a 1000 Guineas winner, Pleascach, and then we had a number of horses that were sold very well. That has kept the show on the road. We kind of have to keep it coming. Selling is the model.
“There would be years when we lose money. Kevin Prendergast warns me about it and I tell him: ‘Kevin, I might give half it back but I’m not giving all of it back.’”
It is ironic that he helped create a giant in Galileo that towers over the thoroughbred industry.
“It’s very good for Coolmore and Ballydoyle and it’s bad for the rest of us. I do have a lot of Galileo mares left. Some of them have produced and some of them have still to produce but they’re young.
“The last time I used Galileo it cost me a million and I got four fillies which would be a disaster for any stud owner. I kept the four of them and raced them. One of them won a listed race and I got 800 grand for her. So I was out. But I have the other three as broodmares. He’s way out of my reach now.”
He is a believer in chasing the dream and in luck having its say. Pedigree is important but it guarantees nothing.
“I bought a couple of horses many moons ago for 400 quid. The two of them won races and they were by a little-known horse called Espresso. Not many people would know, or even bother to have a look, but he’s the sire of the third dam of Galileo.
“And Winx, Stephen Quirke, God be good to him, trained the sire of her third dam, Sovereign Edition. Kevin Prendergast was telling me he wasn’t much of a racehorse but he happens to be the sire of the third dam of Winx.
“So for anybody out there with a mare by an unfashionable stallion, hang in there. It’s a bit like pebble-dashing. Throw enough and something might stick.”
It suggests incredible self-assurance to indulge in such high stakes from the start of the process through to the end, and going all-in on Galileo, when a similar faith in Last Tycoon hadn’t paid off previously, but it isn’t something he had in abundance starting off he insists.
Growing up on a farm in Oylegate in the ‘40s and ‘50s, you did your jobs before and after school and you did “a man’s work” in the summer.
That stood to him, he argues, and so it is no surprise that he describes the law banning the employment of children under the age of 16 to ride work or take on summer jobs as “a terrible nonsense”.
He has been a mentor to young people throughout his professional life and the list of those that worked with him and went on to enjoy successful, and often record-breaking careers is remarkable – O’Brien, Willie Mullins, A.P. McCoy are just three.
Gavin Ryan is a current apprentice riding plenty of winners at the moment but that is never Bolger’s focus with them in the development years. It is a mindset you wish more GAA coaches would adopt.
“You just have to keep working on their style. I tell them: ‘It doesn’t matter whether you win or lose, you have to look well.’ The winning will come after that.”
Ronan Whelan remains a key element of the team riding out at Glebe House and though enjoying a fruitful relationship with Michael Halford and others at present, has the promise of being first jockey to the man who helped him be champion apprentice, even if it looks like Bolger’s son-in-law, Kevin Manning will go on forever.
“After the forever it will be Ronan. That’s if Ronan wants it. I’m delighted for him that he’s going so well. I’d have no fears for Ronan.”
Jim with his champion two-year-old Teofilo \ Healy Racing Photo Healy Racing
Future of racing
So what about the future of racing? Two years ago, he told us the stewarding needed to be sharpened up with regards to riding practices in races. Has it?
“No, it hasn’t. You can still have your horse interfered with in running and there won’t be anything about it. They have this cop-out. In the opinion of the stewards.
“There was a race at the Curragh recently. Kevin Manning was on the inside on mine. Donnacha [O’Brien]’s horse was pushed in on to him. In that case it doesn’t matter about the opinion of the stewards, but the transgressor was the one on the outside. We should have got second. That’s happening all the time.
“And I’m told now that – I see it myself – there are apprentices riding now today with not enough respect for their fellow riders. And they’re getting away with it.
“I would say there are probably trainers who are putting too much pressure on young fellas to get a result. You have to keep it safe. I’d hate to be responsible for a serious accident on the track.
“I’m not talking about offending Ted Walsh now and saying that you need to sanitise it. I wouldn’t want to see that either. But I want to see them riding within the rules. And nobody endangering the life or livelihood of a fellow jockey.”
And there’s one other thing he feels very strongly about.
“I’m pretty sure that if I were ever the dominant owner in racing I wouldn’t be running four fillies in a listed race in Killarney. And I seldom run more than two in any race. And I even don’t run two very often.
“I think owners and trainers, the successful ones, should show some level of responsibility for racing into the future. And I think if one, two or three owners dominate in racing, eventually it’s not going to be good.”
Davy Fitzgerald signing autographs s at the Hurling for Cancer Research match
Finally, what about the future of James S Bolger? Last week, on the essential Friday Night Racing segment on Newstalk, Bolger told joked that as he approached his 78th birthday, his ambitions did not extend beyond getting another year out of it. This was not an indication of looming retirement however.
“I’m a realist and I’m 77. It’s not going to go on forever. The only ambition I have age-wise now is this. I hurled in goal for the first Hurling For Cancer match and I’m hoping to turn out at 80 again.
That’s a target that I have. So I’ll keep pucking a ball around some place in between now and then.
“I don’t see any end to my involvement in racing. I’ll let that take its own course. My maker will decide.”
The Hurling for Cancer Research match takes place at St Conleth’s Park, Newbridge at 6pm on Tuesday. Tickets https://www.cancer.ie/events/hurling-cancer-research-2019