Jim Bolger

Born on Christmas Day 1941, James ‘Jim’ Bolger began his training career in the vicinity of the long-defunct Phoenix Park Racecourse in Castlenock, Dublin in 1976. In fact, 14 years later, just six weeks before Phoenix Park closed permanently, in late 1990, Bolger was pictured at the course with a 16-year-old Anthony, later Sir Anthony, McCoy, who had just ridden for the first time in public. By that stage, had already moved to his current base, Glebe House in Coolcullen, Co. Kilkenny, and was well on his way to the top of his profession.

In 1991, Bolger was Irish Champion Flat Trainer, with a record 126 winners, and retained the trainers’ title in 1992. Indeed, he reached the milestone of 2,000 career winners on May 25, 2008, when Teacht An Earraig easily justified favouritism in a mile-and-a-half handicap at the Curragh. In 2008 as a whole, Bolger saddled 55 winners on the Flat on Irish soil and has since added nearly 800 more to his career total.

New Approach, who won the Derby in 2008, and his son, Dawn Approach, who won the 2,000 Guineas in 2013, are among the exceptional colts Bolger has trained down the years. He has also done well with fillies and mares, including the likes of Jet Ski Lady, who won the Oaks in 1991, and Finsceal Beo, who won the 1,000 Guineas on both sides of the Irish Sea in 2007.