'I'm delighted to have him back' - Jim Bolger welcomes another returning hero to his Redmondstown Stud

Good Morning Bloodstock is Martin Stevens' daily morning email and presented here online as a sample.

Here he talks to master trainer and breeder Jim Bolger about welcoming back a very dear friend to Redmondstown Stud.

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Jim Bolger has been reunited with one of the greatest horses of his long and storied training career, with Derby hero New Approach having joined his Redmondstown Stud in County Wexford after 14 years of distinguished service at Dalham Hall Stud in Newmarket.

New Approach is now standing alongside his son and fellow unbeaten champion two-year-old turned Classic winner Dawn Approach, who moved from Kildangan Stud two years ago.

The new studmates stand as a monument to Bolger’s astonishing achievements in the sport, with the master of Coolcullen not only overseeing their outstanding careers on the track, but also breeding from both of them home-trained Classic winners among other stars.

New Approach gave Bolger his 2,000 Guineas winner Dawn Approach and Irish 2,000 Guineas hero Mac Swiney, while Dawn Approach delivered the trainer’s 2,000 Guineas victor Poetic Flare.

“New Approach has been good to me both on and off the track,” says Bolger with some understatement. “He’s suffered a decline in fertility in recent years and it was becoming expensive sending mares to Newmarket and not getting them in foal, so Darley kindly said that if I still wished to use the nominations I’m entitled to, I could take him home and cover the mares there. I’m delighted to have him back.”

New Approach’s subfertility appears to have worsened in the last few covering seasons, as he served only 11 mares last year, following books of 27 in 2021 and 47 in 2020.

New Approach sired talent such as Derby hero Masar during his tenure at Dalham Hall Stud Credit: Edward Whitaker

That’s an awful pity, as he established himself as an elite sire, with Epsom Classic winners Masar and Talent, plus other Group 1 scorers Cascadian, Elliptique, Potemkin and Sultanina featuring on his roll of honour alongside Dawn Approach and Mac Swiney.

“I didn’t send very many mares this year, and I’ve only got one in foal to him,” adds Bolger.

New Approach is certainly worth persevering with, though, as proven by recent events. Coolcullen houses several exciting horses by the sire, including New Variant, a ten-length winner at Naas on Saturday, and Young Ireland, who scored at Cork on Friday.

Giving an update on the pair, Bolger reports: “New Variant will move into Listed class now and we’ll see how he gets on. I think he’ll stay very well, and a mile and two furlongs will be the absolute minimum he needs. Young Ireland is more of a work in progress and I expect he’ll improve a good bit this season.”

Bolger is known as one of the boldest exponents of inbreeding in the industry, and with New Variant he really is invoking the spirit of one of his heroes, Marcel Boussac. The three-year-old’s sire New Approach and dam Global Reach are both by Galileo, resulting in a rare 2x2 duplication in the tabulated pedigree.

“He probably has more Galileo in him than any other horse in Ireland,” says Bolger, who also bred Mac Swiney on a mating that produced 2x3 inbreeding to the late, legendary Coolmore sire, with a hint of a chuckle.

“Sure, wasn’t Phalaris, the stallion that can lay claim to about two-thirds of the stud book, out of a mare who was inbred 2x3 to Springfield? If Phalaris was such a success, I wouldn’t think close inbreeding can be too much of a disadvantage.”

Mawj: 1,000 Guineas heroine highlighted New Approach's prowess as a broodmare sire Credit: Mark Cranham

Mawj, the determined winner of the 1,000 Guineas on Sunday, also served as a reminder of the power of New Approach, as she and her multiple Group 1-winning half-brother Modern Games are out of the sire’s blue-hen daughter Modern Ideals.

“New Approach is looking like becoming an important broodmare sire,” says Bolger. “As is Teofilo, of course, which is good. It won’t have done my modest mares any harm, being by them.”

New Approach’s homecoming is the latest chapter in the absorbing story of how Bolger changed the face of breeding, which began 40 years ago with the birth of the horse's dam Park Express, and is still being written to this day.

“My memories of Park Express are still fairly vivid,” says Bolger. “She was a big filly, very correct. She came to me as a two-year-old, and she cantered for about six weeks before going home for grass in the month of May, as was usual for her owner Paddy Burns’ horses.

“She came back around the first of June, and she hadn’t lost much of her fitness. She was ready to run in about six weeks, and she won her maiden and then went on from there.”

Park Express went on all right. She flourished for a step up in trip in the second half of her three-year-old season, winning the Nassau Stakes and Lancashire Oaks and seeing off French stars Double Bed and Triptych in her signature success in the Irish Champion Stakes.

The daughter of Ahonoora later became an important broodmare for the Burns family’s Lodge Park Stud, and produced New Approach as her 13th and final foal. The Galileo colt was bought by Bolger for €430,000 as a yearling at Goffs, with Seamus Burns keeping half.

Jim Bolger with Dawn Approach in 2012Credit: Patrick McCann

“New Approach arrived very late in the day, Park Express took her time with him,” says Bolger of the colt, who was sold to Darley after his champion juvenile season. “I had to put my money down to get him, but it all turned out well in the end. He was worth the wait.

“Dawn Approach happened much more quickly, but unfortunately he then took his time as a sire, and I didn’t have another great horse from the line until Poetic Flare. If Dawn Approach can get us another one or two Poetic Flares, I’ll be very happy. He’s shown he can do it, so there’s no reason he can’t again. People forget he nearly had a Derby winner for Kevin Prendergast in Madhmoon, too.

“Put it this way, I can’t afford to go to many sires that are much better than him, so it suits me fine to have him here. It was another kind gesture from Darley to let me have him back.”

Poetic Flare, who also won the St James’s Palace Stakes and ran second in the Irish 2,000 Guineas, Sussex Stakes and Prix Jacques Le Marois, was sold to stand at the Shadai Stallion Station at the end of his three-year-old season in 2021.

“The Japanese are thrilled with his first foals,” says Bolger. “They tell me he’s so fertile the mares only have to look at him and they go in foal. They’re very happy with him, and I’m delighted, I hope he’s a huge success for them.”

Poetic Flare: son of Dawn Approach and now stallion in JapanCredit: Edward Whitaker

Is he tempted to breed or buy a foal by Poetic Flare for himself, even if he is around 6,000 miles away?

“I can, but I haven’t been brave enough to send any mares out there yet,” he replies. “Maybe next year . . .”

Bolger is also weighing up whether to send mares to another of his former stable stars from this line in 2024: Poetic Flare’s Irish 2,000 Guineas conqueror Mac Swiney.

“He’s not in training any more but we haven’t decided exactly what to do with him,” he says about the five-year-old, who was offered for sale on Goffs Online at the start of the year but eventually bought back. “We didn’t stand him this year, and I haven’t made up my mind about next year. There’s a temptation to give him a few.”

Bolger's association with New Approach is especially significant in a historical sense because his purchase of the colt in 2006 was part of a deeper investment made in the then unproven Derby winner Galileo’s early crops in the noughties.

He also bred, owned and raced yet another unbeaten champion two-year-old by the sire in Teofilo – from whom he has bred Irish Classic winners Pleascach and Trading Leather, Melbourne Cup victor Twilight Payment and Dewhurst scorer Parish Hall, who also stands at Redmondstown – as well as the 1,000 Guineas place-getters Cuis Ghaire and Gile Na Greine.

He also bought and raced triple Group 1 heroine Lush Lashes, and bred and sold to Coolmore the Irish Derby and Coronation Cup winner Soldier Of Fortune.

It was with good cause that Coolmore’s MV Magnier once credited Bolger with making Galileo. When the man himself is asked about having changed the course of breeding in the new millennium, he replies modestly: “I suppose I might have done, all right.”

Bolger bred and sold top-class performer Soldier Of Fortune to CoolmoreCredit: Caroline Norris

Pressed further about being such a pivotal figure, he merely adds with a laugh: “Sure, maybe someone will write a book about it in 50 years’ time.” Contemplating the idea a little more, he adds thoughtfully: “I suppose it might appear that we’ve been making history here, to someone looking from the outside in, but to us it’s all been in a day’s work.”

It’s always a pleasure speaking to Bolger. Forget his reputation for not suffering fools gladly; get him talking about pedigrees and he is just like any other Good Morning Bloodstock reader – fascinated with the mysteries of breeding, keen to compare opinions on sires and equally as interested in the human side of the business.

Speaking about son-in-law Kevin Manning, who retired from the saddle last autumn after nearly 30 years as stable jockey at Coolcullen, he says: “He still rides out for me two or three days a week, and I find him very helpful. I value his opinion greatly.”

He also expresses huge pride in his granddaughter Clare Manning, the daughter of Kevin and Úna Manning, who has quickly built up a highly successful boarding and sales prep operation at Boherguy Stud in County Kildare.

“She’s made her mark in a very short space of time,” he says. “The truth is that she laid the foundations over more years than she would like me to say. She knows the business inside out and knows what a good horse might look like, and she’s a very hard worker.”

Clare Manning: "She's a very hard worker"Credit: Patrick McCann

Just as we are wrapping up our phone conversation Bolger even chips in, with a hint of mischief: “And what do you think of my record at producing leading National Hunt sires?”

He’s referring of course to the popular half-brothers Soldier Of Fortune and Affinisea, who he bred out of the Listed-winning Erins Isle mare Affianced, and the mighty Sholokhov, a Sadler’s Wells half-brother to Affianced out of the Listed-winning Lord Gayle mare La Meilleure. He has sired greats such as Don Cossack and Shishkin, and features as paternal grandsire of reigning Cheltenham Gold Cup winner Galopin Des Champs.

After commending him for having bred such influential names, he laughs and reassures me that he’s glad the Flat season has returned and Good Morning Bloodstock is back to featuring “real horses”.

“I was leaving Gowran Park one time, on a day when they were holding a mixed meeting and the Flat races had been and the jumping was starting, when I bumped into the very good National Hunt breeder Marie Doran, so I told her she was late,” he says. “She shot back at me that she was waiting for our ponies to get out of the way. It’s whatever floats your boat, I suppose.

Jim Bolger: “Who knows, I might accidentally train my first Gold Cup winner!”Credit: Patrick McCann (racingpost.com/photos)

“The only thing about the jumps season is that they can’t get away from the Flat, as nearly all the sires are Flat-bred. It doesn’t seem to work the other way around. Having said that, some of those French sires with jumping pedigrees could probably breed a Gold Cup winner at Ascot if anyone was brave enough to try it.”

Thoughts of National Hunt sires, and the value that can be had in using the top-class middle-distance horses who now stand in that sphere, must have been preying on Bolger’s mind of late. Ever the innovator, he renewed his association with Soldier Of Fortune last year, sending the eight-time winning Teofilo mare Ringside Humour to be covered by him at The Beeches Stud.

“We’ll see what happens,” says the man who once sent out back-to-back Irish Champion Hurdle winners in Nordic Surprise and Chirkpar, although his sights are now firmly set on the Flat. “Who knows, I might accidentally train my first Gold Cup winner!”

What do you think?

Share your thoughts with other Good Morning Bloodstock readers by emailing gmb@racingpost.com

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Pedigree pick

Sorry to disappoint Jim Bolger and other Flat fans but it's a return to National Hunt action in this section on Thursday, as a brilliantly bred mare is being unleashed in the bumper at Clonmel (8.18).

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Old Ground and co are out of Poetics Girl, a once-raced Saddlers’ Hall half-sister to Christmas Hurdle second and Supreme Novices’ Hurdle third Snap Tie.

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Good Morning Bloodstock is our latest email newsletter. Leading bloodstock journalist Martin Stevens provides his take and insight on the biggest stories every morning from Monday to Friday.