Jim Bolger

Mac Swiney (Ire), 2018 c. by New Approach out of Halla Na Saoire, by Teofilo, and Poetic Flare (Ire), 2018 c. by Dawn Approach out of Maria Lee, by Rock Of Gibraltar

THE only person to win the Connolly’s Red Mills/The Irish Field Breeder of the Year twice, Jim Bolger is back in contention again. What a month he enjoyed as a breeder, trainer, and owner with his wife Jackie, with two classic winners.

Having landed the Group 1 2000 Guineas at Newmarket with Poetic Flare, he saddled that colt for a third classic tilt in the space of three weeks, and the colt only came up short of a classic double when he was short-headed by his stablemate Mac Swiney in the Group 1 Tattersalls Irish 2000 Guineas at the Curragh. This was a second Group 1 success for Mac Swiney.

Even more telling is the connection Bolger has with the families of the two classic winners, both in terms of their sire and dam lines. Poetic Flare is by Dawn Approach, Bolger’s European champion juvenile son of Mac Swiney’s sire New Approach, and he was also a European champion two-year-old and trained at Coolcullen. Both those subsequent sires were classic winners at three.

Mac Swiney won the Group 1 Vertem Futurity at two and his dam is a full-sister to Group 2 winner and classic-placed Light Heavy and a half-sister to the dam of Group 1 winner Parish Hall.

Poetic Flare’s grandam is a half-sister to the classic trial winner Speirbhean, dam of another Bolger European champion juvenile in Teofilo.

Mark and Adrian Wallace, Grenane House Stud

Mother Earth (Ire), 2018 f. by Zoffany out of Many Colours, by Green Desert

WINNER of the Group 1 Qipco 1000 Guineas, Mother Earth was out again two weeks later and found just one better for her in the French equivalent. At two she ran third in the Group 1 Fillies’ Mile at Newmarket, before crossing the Atlantic to run second in the Grade 1 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf.

This classic success was quite a result for the brothers Mark and Adrian Wallace’s Grenane House Stud, a farm they took over from their mother Philippa Mansergh-Wallace in recent years.

Many Colours won for Sheikh Mohammed when trained by Jim Bolger, landing the Listed Dance Design Stakes at the Curragh. After she failed to produce a winner from her first few foals, she was culled in 2016 and bought to join the fledgling broodmare band at Grenane House for €50,000 at Goffs.

In foal to Night Of Thunder, who had gone to stud that year, Many Colours produced a filly who sold as a foal for €26,000. She was named Night Colours and she won a Group 2 race in Italy as a two-year-old, a member of her sire’s exceptional first crop of runners.

Mother Earth is her dam’s fourth winning offspring – quite a turnaround in just a few years.

A Group 3 winner at Naas at two, Mother Earth has won two of her 10 starts, eight of those coming at two, and with a classic win and multiple top-level placings, she is likely to add more glory as the season goes on.

John Magnier, Coolmore

Empress Josephine (Ire), 2018 f. by Galileo out of Lillie Langtry, by Danehill Dancer

EMPRESS Josephine recorded her first stakes win when she edged out her stablemate Joan Of Arc by a short-head in the Group 1 Tattersalls Irish 1000 Guineas.

In so doing she went one better in the Irish classic than her full-sister Minding, who was denied by a head when second to Jet Setting. Minding suffered just four defeats in a 13-race career that yielded a pair of Group 1 races at two, a classic win in the 1000 Guineas at three, and a career total of seven Group 1 wins. She was champion filly or mare in Europe in each of her three seasons racing.

Minding and Empress Josephine, along with the Group 3 winner Kissed By Angels are three of the four winners to date for their dam Lillie Langtry. That daughter of Danehill Dancer was bred from the unraced Darshaan mare Hoity Toity, a 12,000gns purchase as a two-year-old.

Sold as a foal for 70,000gns and resold for 230,000gns as a yearling, Lillie Langtry went on at three to land both the Group 1 Coronation Stakes at Royal Ascot and the Group 1 Matron Stakes at Leopardstown.

Hoity Toity also bred Count Of Limonade, a listed winner at the Curragh, while her third stakes winner Danilovna was successful in the USA. Empress Josephine’s win was another landmark in the career of Galileo. She became his 90th Group 1, and the win was the 190th success at that level for a son or daughter of the Coolmore legend.

Tony O’Dwyer and Keith O’Brien

Helvic Dream (Ire), 2017 g. by Power out of Rachevie, by Danehill Dancer

UNABLE to get €4,000 in the sale ring for their Power colt foal, breeders Keith O’Brien and Tony O’Dwyer concluded a private sale with Katie McGivern, one that resulted in a profit when she resold the colt as a yearling to bloodstock agent Peter Nolan.

Now the four-year-old, named Helvic Dream, is a Group 1 winner of the Tattersalls Gold Cup. This was a breakthrough success at that level on the flat for trainer Noel Meade.

Power gained the biggest win of his career in the Group 1 Irish 2000 Guineas. The previous year he won the Group 1 Goffs National Stakes, having annexed the Group 2 Coventry Stakes at Royal Ascot. Helvic Dream is his first Group 1 winner, though Peace Envoy and La Force were Group/Grade 1 placed. Now based in Australia, Power has sired 10 group winners in all and a number of other stakes winners.

Helvic Dream is the first foal of the unraced Rachevie who was bred by Paul Shanahan. O’Brien and O’Dwyer are managers of Shanahan’s Ashtown House Stud. The mare’s second foal is the three-year-old Flirting Bridge, and this juvenile winner in 2020 was runner-up to Joan Of Arc in the recent Group 3 Derrinstown Stud 1000 Guineas Trial Stakes.

Helvic Dream’s Woodman grandam Challow Hills is out of the winning Nijinsky mare Cascassi, a stakes-producing half-sister to the dual Oaks winner Diminuendo. This year Helvic Dream’s breeders welcomed a Calyx half-sister, and Rachevie is in foal to No Nay Never.