Poetic Flare

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...

Half-sisters to both of this year's Guineas winners in England have been catalogued for the Goffs Orby Sale, which takes place on Sept. 28 and 29. A total of 444 yearlings-all of which will be eligible for the Goffs Million, Europe's richest 2-year-old race, in 2022--have been assembled for Ireland's Premier Yearling Sale, which returns this year to its usual home at Goffs's Kildare Paddocks. Poetic Flare (Ire) (Dawn Approach {Ire})'s half-sister from the first crop of U S Navy Flag will be consigned as lot 120 by Clare Castle...

There are stallions with far bigger reputations who will never achieve what New Approach (Ire) has in his stud career. Yet somehow the horse who was champion 2-year-old, became the first Derby winner for Galileo (Ire), and was the joint-highest rated horse in the world in 2008 remains somewhat under-appreciated. It is all the more remarkable--and disappointing--given the hugely promising start made by New Approach early in his tenure at Dalham Hall Stud.  Sit through any breeze-up sale and you will regularly hear the auctioneer espousing the Royal Ascot potential...