{"id":189806,"date":"2025-10-10T06:13:11","date_gmt":"2025-10-10T06:13:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/189806\/"},"modified":"2025-10-10T06:13:11","modified_gmt":"2025-10-10T06:13:11","slug":"racings-great-disrupter-jim-bolger-an-enemy-of-complacency-within-the-sport-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/189806\/","title":{"rendered":"Racing\u2019s great disrupter Jim Bolger \u2013 an enemy of complacency within the sport \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Jim Bolger <\/a>has announced he\u2019s downsizing his training and breeding operation. Irish racing<\/a>\u2019s enfant terrible isn\u2019t going anywhere, though. He might even have a classic horse for next year in Mumhan. But it\u2019s still a landmark in the career of one of the seminal and most distinctive figures in Irish racing history.<\/p>\n

Since Bolger will be 84 on Christmas Day, any use of \u201cenfant\u201d might seem incongruous, but it is apt in the sense of someone so famously unconventional, outspoken, and even innovative. When it comes to willingness to disrupt long-standing orthodoxies, Bolger\u2019s maverick instincts remain timeless.<\/p>\n

It means it\u2019s probably just as well he has always cared little for popularity. It is the lone wolf\u2019s fate to be far from all things to all men. There are those in racing who dislike Bolger for his disruptive instincts. And when observing how disruption for its own sake can have an impact on even the highest political offices, it\u2019s easy to understand how it might generate unease.<\/p>\n

The difference with the famously combative trainer is how tough it is to characterise his habit of cocking-a-snoot at the sport\u2019s conventions as some end in itself.<\/p>\n

\"JimJim Bolger made incendiary remarks in 2020 about doping being a chronic issue in Irish racing. Photograph: Inpho <\/p>\n

By any objective analysis, his decades of warning about the deficiencies of Irish racing\u2019s regulation have been vindicated to dispiriting effect. As with most things, there were likely various motivations behind what some at the time were prepared to dismiss as simple zealotry. The bottom line, though, is that no one can say Bolger was shouting into the wind.<\/p>\n

That it gave him licence to make incendiary comments in 2020 about doping being a chronic issue in Irish racing is another matter. <\/p>\n

No one could question Bolger\u2019s readiness to stick his head above the parapet about such a crucial issue. Any smug presumptions about Ireland being an ethical oasis in the thoroughbred world had long since been blown out of the water. Plenty were, and some still are, willing to believe his claims of a non-level playing field.<\/p>\n

The consequence was as vigorous a shaking of the racing tree as there has ever been. What has fallen out can be viewed as either reassurance that things aren\u2019t nearly as bad as might have been feared or some implicit, giant cover-up. What there\u2019s no dispute about, though, is the legacy of bitterness many within the sport and industry feel towards the man who kicked it all off. <\/p>\n

There\u2019s an honourable tradition of whistleblowers skirting normal legalities for a broader good. Not naming names might have been understandable in the circumstances, but the way things unfolded was anything but satisfactory. Ultimately, no smoking syringe emerged to back up Bolger\u2019s claims.<\/p>\n

There appears to be little evidence of that having diminished his ironclad self-belief. Even in a business where shrinking violets are quickly mowed down, he is a notable stranger to the concept of doubt. The industry joke about the man born on December 25th is that God thinks he\u2019s Jim Bolger. <\/p>\n

It\u2019s the sort of self-assurance that can antagonise people. There are countless individuals who\u2019ve felt the waspish side of his tongue. Bolger\u2019s capacity to wrong-foot is renowned. If it makes for a wary atmosphere sometimes, that probably suits just fine a man who comes off as egotistical but whose greatest distaste of all may be for complacency. <\/p>\n

It\u2019s one of the paradoxes that make for a compelling, if sometimes contrary, figure. He is the racing grandee who\u2019s also the ultimate racing interloper. With no racing background and no financial benefactor, he carved out a singular position during his training career, which next year will reach the half-century mark. <\/p>\n

Perhaps it\u2019s little wonder the outsider peered around a sometimes dauntingly insider world and baulked at comfortable inherited certainties. When he started, the legendary Vincent O\u2019Brien <\/a>was in his pomp and disposable income was at a premium. When he first emerged, his contemporary John Oxx recalled queries of \u201cJim who?\u201d It wasn\u2019t long before that was put right. <\/p>\n

Given Bolger\u2019s abrasive personal reputation, the sheer scale of his towering professional accomplishments mean they could be overlooked. <\/p>\n

But it\u2019s worth considering how perhaps the only valid comparable figure in terms of the breadth of his ambition and accomplishment is the legendary Italian horseman Federico Tesio, the man who bred Nearco and Ribot. He, too, owned, bred and trained his own string, but in a very different competitive era. <\/p>\n

\"KevinKevin Manning and New Approach win the 2008 Derby. Photograph: Shaun Curry\/Getty Images <\/p>\n

Tomorrow\u2019s Dewhurst Stakes at Newmarket, usually Europe\u2019s top-rated two-year-old contest, is an indicator of the Irish man\u2019s consistent levels of modern success. Between 2006 and 2012, Bolger won it five times. They included the subsequent 2008 Derby winner New Approach.<\/p>\n

That in his finest moment at Epsom, Bolger found himself exchanging fire with journalists over how he\u2019d appeared to rule the colt out of the race, only to then change his mind, somehow seemed apt. The great disrupters rarely make for comfortable company. However uncomfortable it may be, shaking up complacency can be no bad thing in the long run.<\/p>\n

Something for the Weekend<\/p>\n

A paltry field of 21 lines up for tomorrow\u2019s Newmarket Cesarewitch and 10 of them are Irish, including last year\u2019s controversial winner Alphonse Le Grande. Charles Byrnes\u2019s Reverend Hubert will garner a lot of focus, while Willie Mullins has three shots. Seddon (3.40) is the oldest horse in the race but could go close at big odds. John McConnell\u2019s veteran, a 2023 Cheltenham festival winner, is two from four on the flat and will relish quick ground conditions. Patrick McGettigan\u2019s claim means he has a featherweight on his back.<\/p>\n

In contrast, Damysus (1.15) is likely to start favourite for the Newmarket opener but looks the one to beat. Injured at the start in the Derby, he impressed on his return to action at Deauville in August and shapes as ultimately being better than this Group Three level.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Jim Bolger has announced he\u2019s downsizing his training and breeding operation. Irish racing\u2019s enfant terrible isn\u2019t going anywhere,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":189807,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[40],"tags":[3004,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-189806","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-racing","tag-racing","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/189806","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=189806"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/189806\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/189807"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=189806"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=189806"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=189806"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}