FOR 10 minutes or so, the racing and breeding world belonged to Jim Bolger last Saturday. In France, a colt he bred, Gear Up, won the Group 1 Criterium de Saint-Cloud for trainer Mark Johnston, and then minutes later another colt he bred, owns with his wife Jackie and which he trains, Mac Swiney, gave him victory in the Group 1 Vertem Futurity at Doncaster. Both colts are two-year-old grandsons of Galileo (Sadler’s Wells), the horse John Magnier has credited Bolger with being his first great supporter.

More remarkable still is the fact that Jim Bolger trained the sires of both juvenile Group 1 winners, Teofilo and New Approach, bred the former, and has had associations with both female families, to differing degrees, going back some time. As a story of continuing success and influence within the thoroughbred business, few can match the achievements of Jim Bolger who, rightly, has twice been accorded – among many accolades in his lifetime – the Connolly’s Red Mills/The Irish Field Breeder of the Year title.