They say that the post-Derby press conference is usually a cosy affair, a trip down the pedigree lines with a couple of lovely anecdotes to complement the latest all-conquering colt at Epsom.

In 2008, it was anything but and more describable as a heated, stormy affair involving a perturbed British press corps and Jim Bolger, who had just trained his first Derby winner, the brilliant New Approach.

The cause for such angst among the mostly British assembled journalists was that New Approach had only been declared a likely runner for the race by Bolger five days previous. Indeed earlier Bolger admitted that he’d only left the son of Galileo in the entries for the race by accident and had just run him to finish second in the Irish 2000 Guineas two weeks previously.

The late u-turn to line up the colt up at Epsom led to accusations of contempt on the punter/betting sector, with some even suggesting he had brought the sport into disrepute.

A few days after the Derby, Chris McGrath wrote in the Independent: “As a patriot, Bolger was perfectly within his rights to do what he could to bolster Ireland's Classics – and the Irish Derby is now the next target. But it is self-indulgent for him to suggest that his only mistake – and a very happy one, as he now recognises – was to leave his horse in the Derby. The real, coarse misjudgement was to claim that his agenda suited the horse and owners best, too.”

Doubtless Bolger didn’t lose a wink of sleep against this sort of view, which is widespread at the time. A.P. McCoy, one of many proteges at Coolcullen, probably summed it up best when he said: “I just think he’s pleased he’s disappointed a lot of people by winning it.”

Unsurprisingly

The now 79-year-old, unsurprisingly, was unrepentant in the press conference and since, suggesting that any responsibility to keep punters informed would be “a bit like running a nanny state.”

Perhaps that was a game-changing moment in the attitude of exchange punters, many of who now actively try to anticipate changing plans from trainers. Bolger, however, seems like the same man, ever so true to his own convictions. In sport there is something ever so endearing about a person who can walk the walk and talk the talk. Such brashness is usually saved for combat sports, and probably ill advised for predicting the fortunes of four-legged beasts, but that doesn’t stop the master of Coolcullen telling all.

Reacting to Poetic Flare’s 2000 Guineas win, Bolger asserted that there was very little between both him and Mac Swiney at home before revealing plans that the Newmarket winner would attempt a unique classic trio by taking in both the Poule d’Essai des Poulains and then the Irish 2000 Guineas.

Last week he said Mac Swiney would take his chance at the Curragh before heading onto the Derby just two weeks later. It wasn’t a conventional move, the colt coming down from the 10-furlong trip he raced over in the Derrinstown Stud Derby Trial, but then, Bolger doesn’t do conventional.

And on Saturday, just as he had told us, there was a short head between his two colts, and more significantly they’d pulled just under three lengths clear of their rivals, dominating the finish to the first Irish classic of the season from just under two furlongs out.

Such campaigning would befuddle plenty but Poetic Flare arguably ran his best race of his three classics in second and Mac Swiney was able to utilise his stamina to excellent effect.

Anomaly corrected

The win also corrected a true anomaly of the record books, giving Bolger his first win in the race and, true to his word again, but in some contrast to 2008, Mac Swiney is bound for Epsom, going back up four furlongs in trip with two weeks in between races, just like his sire.

Bolger, as his daughter Úna explained to Gary O’Brien on Racing TV on Saturday, subscribes to the idea that the Guineas is the best Derby trial around. Since New Approach, he has had three Derby runners, two of which carried strong Guineas form going to Epsom - Gan Amhras and Dawn Approach.

Given both those struggled badly, most notably the second mentioned who pulled his chance away, illustrates the pitfalls of such a marked change in trip but as others have shown, it’s a gamble worth taking. Camelot (2012), Australia (2014) and Masar (2018) are all recent Guineas-to-Derby winners while there have been plenty of horses to hit the frame in both contests in the years in between.

Mac Swiney has come in for support in the last 24 hours and that isn’t a surprise. He was well held behind the clear Derby favourite Bolshoi Ballet in the Derrinstown but he was weak in the betting on the day and was reported by Bolger to have “a very copious nasal discharge” the following morning. He left that form well behind him with his win on Saturday and he is now a Guineas winner who has beaten another Guineas winner, so a top-class colt over a mile but one who could be even more effective over a longer trip, just like his dad was.

Thirteen years on, it’s the inverse of the New Approach story, with Bolger declaring the Derby as a target for Mac Swiney well before the Irish 2000, but not out of any lessons learned, but because of his own confidence in the horse he saved the name of one of Ireland’s most celebrated patriots for.

It could be a remarkable third classic win this season for one of the most legendary figures in flat racing.