Poetic Flare

Legendary Irish trainer Jim Bolger has listed his Glebe House stables for €4 million recently. The sale is being handled by Jordan Auctioneers. The 150-acre Coolcullen training facility holds 158 stables, while the main residence dates back to 1760. In addition, there are three gallops (turf, sand/fibre, and woodchip) on the property. Also included in the listing are veterinary facilities and staff accommodations. Bolger, who is in his 80s, sold his Redmondstown Stud last year and has been downsizing his bloodstock operation for the past several years. The multiple champion...

Whether the Classic picture is any clearer this week than last is debatable but what the last seven days have brought us is some truly impressive performances to savour. And it is hard to pick just one, though it has to be said that Portcullis's Wood Ditton run was visually the most spectacular for all that you could see the colt learning with every stride he took, from being left at the start, to bounding through then clear of his rivals.  His maiden success for the King and Queen played...

HOKKAIDO, Japan--Things are hotting up in the Northern Horse Park, literally and figuratively. As the mercury nudged 30 degrees on Saturday, the English and Irish in town for the JRHA Select Sale swooned and wilted while the many attendants showing the horses, mostly clad in jackets, went manfully and womanfully about their hot and tiring work without so much as a whimper. Both they and the young horses in their care are well prepared for the two inspection days ahead, despite having only arrived on the sales ground that morning....

Jim Bolger has provided the strongest indication yet that the stable jockey vacancy left by his retired son-in-law Kevin Manning at Coolcullen Stables will not be filled by an outside rider and that the legendary trainer will be staying loyal to Rory Cleary and Luke McAteer this season. Cleary has already tasted major success for his long-standing boss when partnering MacSwiney (Ire) (New Approach {Ire}) to lead home a Bolger-trained one-two in the 2021 Irish 2,000 Guineas, outpointing Manning aboard the better-fancied Poetic Flare (Ire) (Dawn Approach {Ire}). It was...

Jim Bolger says that his Classic-winning stallion prospect Mac Swiney (Ire) (New Approach {Ire}) will appeal to just about any stud in the world when he is offered for sale online by Goffs on January 20 but expressed a wish for Irish 2000 Guineas winner to stay in Ireland. The reason being, according to Bolger, is that he'd like to support Mac Swiney with a dozen mares in his debut season at stud. Bolger also revealed that, despite the fact the horse who led home stablemate Poetic Flare (Ire) (Dawn...

Jim Bolger has offered up a glowing tribute to multiple Group 1 and Classic-winning stable jockey Kevin Manning, who at the age of 55, announced his retirement from the saddle after riding a winner for his legendary father-in-law at Galway.  Manning joined Bolger in 1978. Together, they won the Derby with New Approach (Ire) (Galileo {Ire}), the Irish Derby with Trading Leather (Ire) (Teofilo {Ire}) and came within a whisker of completing the 1,000 Guineas treble with Finsceal Beo (Ire) (Mr Greeley), who went out on her shield at Longchamp...

Two legends of Irish racing will join forces for the first time this season after Jim Bolger revealed that he has a 2-year-old filly by Holy Roman Emperor (Ire) in training with Kevin Prendergast. Bolger gave €31,000 for the recently named Roman Moon (Ire) after Prendergast recommended the filly at the Goffs Orby Sale last September and she is set to break new ground by becoming his first runner with the Friarstown operator. Roman Moon will carry the white and purple colours of Bolger's wife Jackie, once carried to major...

Jockey Kevin Manning suffered a broken collarbone in a fall at Galway on Monday. The 54-year-old rider, whose regular mounts this season have included the Classic-winning Poetic Flare (Ire) (Dawn Approach {Ire}) and Mac Swiney (Ire) (New Approach {Ire}) for his father-in-law Jim Bolger, sustained the injury when his mount, Dublin Journal (Ire) (Teofilo {Ire}), slipped up after a furlong of the Galway Handicap. Dublin Journal also races as a homebred for Bolger and his wife, Jackie. "He's broken his collarbone, but it's a straight-forward break, so it shouldn't be...

Nobody in our community is more eligible than Ted Bassett to say that he has seen it all before, but something will be attempted Saturday that falls outside even the long experience encompassed by his 100th birthday in just a few days' time. For a Keeneland showpiece that Mr. Bassett helped to inaugurate in 1984, as host to the lady for whom it was named, could well present one of her subjects with the opportunity to complete a unique double. First, in the backyard of Windsor Castle, William Haggas saddles...

Poetic Flare (Ire) (Dawn Approach {Ire}--Maria Lee {Ire}, by Rock of Gibraltar {Ire}), the top-rated 3-year-old miler of 2021, has been retired from racing and will stand at Shadai Stallion Station in Japan from next year. Winner of the G1 2000 Guineas and G1 St James's Palace S., the colt has provided his master trainer Jim Bolger with perhaps the pinnacle of his parallel career as a breeder, for he not only bred, owned and trained Poetic Flare's sire and fellow Classic winner Dawn Approach, but he also trained his...

By now, the story is well known: after six consecutive years of healthy trade punctuated by six-figure averages and seven-figure leading lots, Goffs is on a recovery mission with its Orby Sale after it was dealt a massive blow in 2020 in the midst of the pandemic. With a 14-day mandatory quarantine steadfastly in place for any visitors to Ireland throughout last year's sale season, Goffs was forced to make some gut-wrenching decisions about its flagship sale that included relocating it to its Goffs UK headquarters in Doncaster. That disruption...

Many open questions surrounding some of Europe's best will be answered in the space of less than an hour on Saturday, with Leopardstown's G1 Irish Champion S. and Doncaster's G1 Cazoo St Leger condensed in the middle of an absorbing spell of action. There will barely be time to reflect on the promise of the winner of the G2 KPMG Champions Juvenile S. that forms part of Irish Champions weekend before the focus is switched to Town Moor for its own glimpse of futurity in the G2 Champagne S. In...