Paul Kimmage - Racing's dirty secret

[Slim]

Jim Bolger claims he knows who the drug cheats
Paul Kimmage

There will be a Lance Armstrong in Irish racing, claims Jim Bolger, and he knows who the drug cheats are

The raids on the premises of (John) Hughes and (Philip) Fenton took place within 15 days of each other in January and February 2012. They showed that Irish racing had a serious problem with illegal performance-enhancing drugs. Though Fenton would be treated more severely by the courts, the Hughes case was more serious.

As a vet . . . John Hughes had a stable pass and was a licensed person at Irish race meetings. Investigations by the Department of Agriculture established that he had been dealing with a company called Nature Vet, based in Australia, and between 2002 and 2012 he had bought 250kg of Nitrotain from that company.

Nitrotain, which contains ethylestrenol, is a particularly potent anabolic steroid and the quantity Hughes had bought from Nature Vet was sufficient for 62,500 individual doses . . . The investigation into Hughes showed that illegal drugs have been a part of the sport for at least a decade.

David Walsh,

The Sunday Times,

November 30, 2014


Six months ago, a couple of days after his gorgeous chestnut colt, Mac Swiney, had won a Group 1 race at Doncaster, Jim Bolger gave an interview to Daragh Ó Conchúir for The Irish Field . The timing was fortuitous.

“He had had a very quiet spell, then Mac Swiney won at Doncaster, and Poetic Flare had won the week before,” the journalist says. “It was maybe my third (big) interview with Jim and he always gives an opinion, but I wasn’t expecting this. It was at the end of the conversation and I think I said, ‘Is there anything more you want to say?’ It was a complete fluke.”



What Bolger said sent a storm through racing that would rage for months. Here’s the report the next day, Sunday October 31, in the Racing Post :


“Jim Bolger has said the number one problem in Irish racing is drug cheats, who are stopping the sport from being a level playing field, and has called on the Irish Horseracing Regulatory Board to introduce more hair testing with immediate effect.

“The trainer, who stole the show last Saturday by sending out Mac Swiney to win the Vertem Futurity Trophy at Doncaster, has stressed he would be 100pc happy for his own horses to be hair tested at any time.

“Bolger said: ‘I have knowledge of problems and I would like to see the IHRB stepping up to the plate. There needs to be more rigorous testing, but action has to happen after that testing has taken place. I’m inclined to think we have had instances in the past where action wasn’t taken when it should have been.’”

A few days later, we requested an interview with the trainer. A month after that, we tried again. On Tuesday, we spent four hours with Bolger at his home in Coolcullen. It started with a visit to Mac Swiney — the winner of the Irish 2,000 Guineas — in box number one of the yard.

Paul Kimmage: OK, Jim, let’s take it from the top. It’s the last week of October and a couple of days after Mac Swiney wins at Doncaster, you give an interview to Daragh Ó Conchúir at The Irish Field : “I am concerned with the lack of policing in racing. It’s not up to the mark. It’s not up to scratch . . . It is not a level playing pitch at the moment.”

Jim Bolger: I just threw it out there. He was sitting the same as you are now. I didn’t know how he was going to use it.

PK: You knew what you were doing. You’re no fool.

JB: Sometimes

PK: You knew this was going to cause an absolute shitstorm.

JB: Hmmm.

PK: You’re 79 years old. Why take that on at this stage of your life?

JB: It would be like you coming down the Champs-Elysees on a Sunday in July, knowing that the fellow in front of you is full of dope and you’re going to be second. And on the other side of the podium. That’s not easy to take. And if you’re half a man, you’re going to stand up for yourself. So I’m standing up for myself, and for the trainers who are playing the game straight . . .

PK: You’re standing up alone. You’re not getting much support.

JB: Well, I can understand that because a lot of trainers are terrified of authority. They never express an opinion on anything, and that’s their prerogative — they somehow want an easy life. But as soon as they realise what’s happening to them, I think they will be talking . . .

PK: You don’t think they realise what’s happening?

JB: Some may not, and others still haven’t plucked up the courage.

PK: How long have you realised there was a problem?

JB: I’ve been very slow on this one; I’d say it’s going on for 20 years, ever since steroids became well known. Before that, it was just a bit of sodium bicarbonate, but then the steroids came along. Now they weren’t used extensively, but they were used by some individuals.

PK: The Hughes case, the Nitrotain, was in 2012.

JB: Yeah. And in the 10 years before that [John Hughes] brought in a quarter tonne of the stuff.

PK: Who was using it?

JB: Yeah, well that’s (the question).

PK: Why weren’t you jumping up and down when Hughes was caught?

JB: There are only certain windows that I will get; and if you’re not going well and you say something, it will be ignored. I had an audience because I had won the Vertem Futurity with Mac Swiney and was asked for that interview. I was always going to raise it.

PK: The timeline was interesting. It was a few weeks after the contaminated feed story and the fact that a French lab was picking up traces of a steroid (Zilpaterol) that wasn’t being detected here. Was that part of it?

JB: It was more a question of having an audience.

PK: Having won with Mac Swiney?

JB: Yeah.

PK: Was there any blowback? Did anyone call you about it?

JB: No, there was just a few swipes in interviews on television. Nobody spoke to me directly about it.

PK: Six weeks later, Brian O’Connor wrote an interesting column in The Irish Times : ‘Jim Bolger’s incendiary statements should shake racing to its foundations’. Here’s the opening paragraph: “It’s six weeks since Jim Bolger declared drugs to be Irish racing’s number one problem. He doesn’t believe there’s a level playing field. These are incendiary statements from one of the sport’s grandees and should shake racing to its foundations.” And that’s the point, isn’t it? Because it doesn’t.

JB: Hmmm.

PK: The sport has its head in the sand: ‘Say nothing and it will blow over.’

JB: Yeah.

PK: Here’s another paragraph from the O’Connor piece: “If Bolger’s aim was to generate a conversation about drug testing in racing, then it isn’t a very public one. Colleagues of his passed the buck to the Trainers’ Association — of which Bolger too is a member — and it declined to comment. Even privately there is reluctance to discuss this . . . Bolger might be off a few Christmas card lists this year.” Have you had any support?

JB: Very little, but I can understand that because of the fear factor with the ruling body. Trainers don’t want to stick their heads above the parapet.

PK: Aidan O’Brien did.

JB: When he was asked.

PK: Yeah, when he was asked.

JB: And do you have his reply?

PK: He said he didn’t agree with you, and that he hadn’t spoken to anyone in racing who thought differently. I’ve scribbled it down here: “Jim is entitled to his opinion. It’s very clean, and everyone is doing a very good job.”

JB: I think he also said I should name names.

PK: Yes, he did.

JB: I’m not that big a fool! I don’t travel to Dublin very often, but I don’t want to be going up every day for three weeks to the High Court.

PK: Yeah, O’Connor made that point: “Invariably, there were a few grumbles that he shouldn’t toss around accusations without backing them up. But since naming names in such circumstances is a high-speed shortcut to the High Court, it’s a pretty empty demand.”

JB: (smiles) But they can rest assured I know who they are; like, if I had responsibility for rooting out cheats, I’d have them rooted out in six months.

PK: How?

JB: Because I know who they are.

PK: Lynn Hillyer (the IHRB chief veterinary officer and head of anti-doping) told The Examiner recently that they have been working with you for some time on the issue.

JB: I had had one meeting before ( The Irish Field interview) and one after it.

PK: With Hillyer?

JB: Yes.

PK: On what needed to be done?

JB: Yes.

PK: You laid it out for her?

JB: Yes, but I didn’t name names.

PK: But you laid out the issues and how they should be addressed?

JB: Yes.

PK: How was that received?

JB: She seemed to receive it pretty well; I think she would be keen to do something, but I’m not sure she has the back-up. I mean, when you get the chief executive saying that there is no problem, and (in the next breath) saying they are taking on extra (anti-doping) staff. Why do they need extra staff if there’s no problem there? And, by the way, it was all supposed to be confidential.

PK: What was?

JB: The meetings and the conversations, but it suited them to break that confidence because it was known at that stage that they were doing precious little about it. And her defence was: ‘Oh, we’ve had meetings with him and we’re making progress.’ But as far as I was concerned, and I had made it quite clear, the meetings were confidential.

PK: I would imagine when that happened, and the confidence was broken, there was a pretty stern phone call?

JB: Well, at that stage, I was hoping that we could have further dialogue, which didn’t happen. But what progress have they made? I haven’t seen much evidence that there is anything happening.

PK: How do you gauge progress?

JB: When someone gets caught. I mean, that’s what has to happen.

PK: Here’s another question: John Hughes didn’t live too far from here.

JB: He’s only down the road. I know him very well.

PK: So why wouldn’t you?

JB: Why wouldn’t I?

PK: Yeah, why wouldn’t you dope your horses? Philip Fenton is back training again. The penalties for using prohibited substances are pretty laughable.

JB: I wouldn’t do it because it’s cheating, and I’m not a cheat. I know there’s an attitude in racing that it’s all about winners, fair means or foul, but I think there has to be an element of decency in the whole thing. You have to have some self-respect. And I know I have right on my side.

PK: Sure.

JB: It all goes back to the quarter tonne of Nitrotain. Where did it go? Philip (Fenton) did get a fair old suspension, but he could well have been the sacrificial lamb. And the reason I don’t have any confidence in the regulator is because they must have known that at the time. They may also, I understand, have had a list (of other trainers) and it wasn’t followed up on.

PK: You’ve introduced me to Mac Swiney and the clump out of his mane?

JB: (smiles) Yeah, a victim of my own invention.

PK: So you’ve no faith in all the trumpeting about hair testing?

JB: I’m not sure they’re very serious about it. The samples might have been taken but if they were tested properly, they would have had results by now.

PK: So it’s your sense that . . .

JB: There’s a problem, and I’ve had great support from my staff who know that I am one hundred and one per cent right. And they know more about it than I do, because they are right in the mix.

PK: What do you mean?

JB: They have contact with other stable staff. They are closer to the coalface than I am.

PK: I’m seeing a lot of parallels with pro cycling here.

JB: Well, there will be a Lance Armstrong in Irish racing.

PK: There will?

JB: There will.

PK: You say that with certainty.

JB: Yes.

PK: But you’ve just said the IHRB are not serious about it?

JB: When it is recognised that there is a need to really tackle this problem, I don’t think the IHRB will be in control. I think all of the European racing bodies should now invite Usada (United States Anti-Doping Agency) to deal with this.

PK: As they’ve done in the US?

JB: Yes.

PK: What about the perception — and I’m sure it’s been levelled at you — that by highlighting all this you are diminishing or damaging racing?

JB: I agree, I am, but in the short term. But in the long term — to use an expression I hate — after the swamp is drained, things will be much healthier. And it’s not for me, because I’ll be gone at that stage.

PK: This is a difficult stance you’ve taken, something you’ve never had a problem with, but what about your family? Jackie (wife)? Una (daughter)? Kevin (son-in-law)? Have you had any conversations about it with them?

JB: I’ve discussed it with them all, and with my staff as well, and it comes back to the same thing. When you have right on your side you have nothing to fear.

[LUKE]

Jim says he has information but won't name names -how did that get printed in a Sunday paper.

[Slim]

Jim says he has information but won't name names -how did that get printed in a Sunday paper.

That's not what's he's said at all.

[Frankel]

That's not what's he's said at all.

Do tell us?

[Slim]

Do tell us?

Read the transcript, it's all there. I'm not a mind reader but I know he's not stated he has evidence.

[HawkWing]

He did say he knows who is guilty - Luke didn't say he had evidence - just that Jim didn't name names.

Jim seems to suggest that it would take him 6 months before he could say it without fear of a court case.

[Slim]

He did say he knows who is guilty - Luke didn't say he had evidence - just that Jim didn't name names.

Jim seems to suggest that it would take him 6 months before he could say it without fear of a court case.

A lot of paraphrasing going on. What you suggest in your second paragraph isn't what he said.

[HawkWing]

JB: I think he also said I should name names.
PK: Yes, he did.
JB: I’m not that big a fool! I don’t travel to Dublin very often, but I don’t want to be going up every day for three weeks to the High Court.
PK: Yeah, O’Connor made that point: “Invariably, there were a few grumbles that he shouldn’t toss around accusations without backing them up. But since naming names in such circumstances is a high-speed shortcut to the High Court, it’s a pretty empty demand.”
JB: (smiles) But they can rest assured I know who they are; like, if I had responsibility for rooting out cheats, I’d have them rooted out in six months..


No. You are being very unnecessarily literal in denying this and somehow arguing the point that Luke mentioned and now me.

As above said that he wont name names as he would end up in the high court if he did. (Because he doesn't have evidence to back up what he knows). But it would take him six months before he could root out the cheats (name names). The implication being that it wouldn't take him as long as the Irish authorities, because he knows who is guilty, or as Luke paraphrased it - he has information.

Whether he does actually know anything is a different question.

[littlelad]

My interpretation is that he is saying that he knows who the cheats are.

If he was in charge he would have them "rooted out" within 6 months. I.e. if he was the IHRB he would be able to get a pretty watertight case and evidence against these people within 6 months.

He is saying he would be able to do it quickly as he knows where to look.



I find it hard to take the IHRB at face value. Promising a meeting with Bolger is confidential, then announcing to the world that they have met with him as it is good PR for them. Not a good look.

Sent from my SM-J415FN using Tapatalk

[HawkWing]

My interpretation is that he is saying that he knows who the cheats are.

If he was in charge he would have them "rooted out" within 6 months. I.e. if he was the IHRB he would be able to get a pretty watertight case and evidence against these people within 6 months.

He is saying he would be able to do it quickly as he knows where to look.

I think thats what everyone thinks he said.

[edgt]

Damned if they said they met and damned if they did not.
Legalities of all these situations are very delicate as the Chris Gordon case showed us.
Paul Kimmage will not let go, that much is for sure.

[Grey]

http://www.irishracing.com/news?head...er&prid=218942

Ger Lyons says he has no evidence but backs Bolger anyway. When trainers are as high in the hierarchy as this pair they are hardly worrying about a couple of small trainers scooping up the occasional race here and there. Bolger's mention of Lance Armstrong and Lyons' reference to Baffert puts only one surname in flat racing in Ireland in the frame and perhaps two or three others if they are referring to NH racing, which I doubt.


http://www.irishracing.com/news?head...ew&prid=218939

Meanwhile this is the IHRB statement. Ever since the Fenton case people have been pushing for a comprehensive drug testing regime in Ireland and it seems, on the face of it, that we now have one after a lot of dragging and screaming from some parts of the industry.

[littlelad]

As long as they are using the newmarket test centre, I wouldn't be too confident.

The gain feed contamination showed that the irish/UK testing is not nearly as sensitive to picking up banned substances compared to testing in France.

Sent from my SM-J415FN using Tapatalk

[jinnyj]

Meanwhile Wesley Ward regularly brings over unnaturally over developed two year olds and nothing says a thing......

[Slim]

http://www.irishracing.com/news?head...er&prid=218942

Ger Lyons says he has no evidence but backs Bolger anyway. When trainers are as high in the hierarchy as this pair they are hardly worrying about a couple of small trainers scooping up the occasional race here and there. Bolger's mention of Lance Armstrong and Lyons' reference to Baffert puts only one surname in flat racing in Ireland in the frame and perhaps two or three others if they are referring to NH racing, which I doubt.


http://www.irishracing.com/news?head...ew&prid=218939

Meanwhile this is the IHRB statement. Ever since the Fenton case people have been pushing for a comprehensive drug testing regime in Ireland and it seems, on the face of it, that we now have one after a lot of dragging and screaming from some parts of the industry.

Agreed. It quite simply has to be the O'Brien's.

[edgt]

part two of the article today.
very interesting again if Slim can put it up.
By the way Stephen Craine was born on the Isle Of Man, hence the "Irish based " jockey for St Jovite.
JIm always had an open day for Leopardstown/Tote members and whenever things open up Coolcullen is well worth a visit; tea and bikkies and a collection for St Vincent De Paul.

[Slim]

Jim Bolger came from nowhere — a blow-in — to become one of the most successful and most respected trainers in the long and storied history of racing
Paul Kimmage
June 20 2021 02:30 AM
It was still dark that morning in the spring of 1991 when the young reporter arrived in Coolcullen, Co Kilkenny. Jim Bolger watched from the conservatory, offered a firm hand, and invited him to follow directly to the yard where the work was about to begin.
The reporter, as was his habit, was already plotting his feature. The crunch of Bolger’s shoes on the gravel would make for a dramatic intro. The frenetic whispers as he approached the yard — “Look sharp! He’s left the house!” — would enhance his reputation as a man not to be meddled with.

It was this, as much as his ability as a trainer [Bolger had smashed JJ Parkinson’s 1923 record with 149 winners the season before], that most interested the reporter.

A strict disciplinarian who didn’t drink or smoke, or tolerate it in his yard, it was rumoured that Bolger’s staff were required to attend mass during Lent, and that his gallops at Coolcullen often vibrated with his roars. And his scathing criticisms of the Turf Club were already the stuff of legend.

A man of humble origins, he had upset the racing establishment with a lack of pedigree, an audacious rise to the summit, and the spurning of almost everything they regarded as sacrosanct. In an interview once with the late [and great] Raymond Smith, it was suggested Bolger would do better for himself by trying harder with the media and courting popularity.

“Very few owners these days are looking for entertainers when they decide who will train their horses,” he replied. “They can readily arrange to employ comedians to entertain them if they so desire.”

This would be the twist in the young reporter’s story.

Jim Bolger was funny.



1. THE STUFF OF LEGEND

If joining Jim Bolger was the most significant move of my career at that time, the next big event happened one cold, snowy January morning in 1993 on the Coolcullen all-weather gallop. I was riding a lovely Maktoum Green Desert colt called Kly Green. He was a yearling coming up as a two-year-old, and although he was an absolute picture to look at, I realised that he had a bit of a fiery temper.

This particular morning he was bucking quite a bit on the gallops. He stumbled and I came off. It was an easy fall but I came crashing down on my left leg. I knew immediately that I had broken my leg. I can still remember the terrible pain from the fall and the icy-cold weather gnawing at my bones as I lay dumped on the snow. Jim Bolger was soon on the scene, and I will always remember his words to me as I lay moaning and groaning on the ground: ‘You’re soft.’

The Real McCoy,

Tony McCoy with Claude Duval



Paul Kimmage: Let’s talk about your reputation as a hard taskmaster.

Jim Bolger: Yeah, well, that’s a bit of a joke really.

PK: Some of the stories I’ve read in the McCoy books are fascinating.

JB: Yeah, well, I got a chance to correct the sequence with regard to the broken leg.

PK: When you said he was soft?

JB: Yeah, there was 12 months in between.

PK: Go on.

JB: People might have got the impression from the book that I said it when he was on the gallop. I didn’t. I put a blanket on him, called a doctor and we got the ambulance for him. He went home when he came out of hospital, and when he arrived back he was about 10 stone!

PK: And that’s when you said it?

JB: Yeah.

PK: What about this: “Jim loved giving people a bollocking, and he had a way of doing it that would really annoy you. I was only a kid at the time, but I saw him make grown men cry.”

JB: That’s a joke!

PK: “He’d pick you out after you did the slightest thing wrong, and he’d get you to take your horse out the back.

‘Why did you do that?’

‘Dunno, boss.’

‘You’re a gobshite. What are you?’

‘I’m a gobshite boss.’”

JB: ‘…For doing what I did.’

PK: You’re saying he left that out?

JB: Yeah.

PK: There’s more: “It seems incredible thinking back on it now. Grown men standing there like school children.

‘You’re a fool. What are you?’

‘I’m a fool, boss.’”

JB: No, that’s not accurate. I’d never call anybody a fool because I’m well aware of what scripture says about calling thy brother a fool.

PK: What does it say?

JB: I can’t recall exactly but it’s . . .

PK: (Laughs)

JB: I might tell them that something they did was foolish, but I never, ever, call anybody a fool.

PK: You’ve mentioned scripture — that’s another part of your legend. You insisted that all of the lads in the yard went to mass

JB: No, it wasn’t like that. I was going down to mass one morning, I always went to mass for Lent, and Pat O’Donovan’s [the head lad] father was dying at the time with cancer, and I thought, ‘If we jig things around a little bit, it will allow the lads that want to go to mass, to go.’ They weren’t marched down.

PK: Right.

JB: When new fellows came [to the yard] I would always ask: ‘Do you go to mass at home?’ And I’d make sure they did here what they did at home. But nowadays I wouldn’t even ask, because a lot of their parents don’t even go.

PK: Do you?

JB: Go to mass?

PK: Yeah.

JB: Every Sunday?

PK: Yeah.

JB: Oh yeah, definitely.

PK: You’ve generated a lot of myth.

JB: Well, that’s easy in this game.

PK: I’m not sure I’ve heard as much about others as I’ve heard about you. What about this? “One of his favourite punishments was getting you to work on Sunday. You’d get the slightest thing wrong, that’s it, you’re working this Sunday. And if you protested at all, if you started claiming that you had been unjustly treated, you’d get the next Sunday as well. And the next and the next if you kept protesting.”

JB: Yeah, and that worked a treat because that really focused the mind. You could imagine them coming up to 12 o’clock on a Sunday: ‘Why am I here?’ So that was the psychology behind that.

PK: Hmmmm . . .

JB: But sure he [McCoy] said as recently as Derby day . . . did you see his interview? He said that if any young fella asked where he should go to be successful, he would send them to Jim Bolger. And that if he had his life all over again, he’d be coming here, so . . .

PK: Your other most famous alumnus is Aidan O’Brien.

JB: Yes.

PK: And?

JB: The question I used to get asked the most was: ‘How do you get on with Dermot [Weld]?’ And I’d say, ‘I get on fine with Dermot. We’ve been competitors for 40 years, and if we couldn’t learn to live with one another in a 40-year period, it wouldn’t be saying much for both of us.’

PK: Sure.

JB: (Laughs) I always referred to Kevin Prendergast as the best trainer on the Curragh and he would invariably say to me, ‘Would you not go a bit further?’

PK: So it’s friendly needle?

JB: No, there would be no needle. And no one-upmanship. I think we all appreciate the good days, and Aidan . . . I am delighted to see him have the success he had, and to make such a success of it.

PK: I was reminded of something you said about him once watching the Derby. This is from an interview in 2002 when I asked you how good he was as a trainer: “Aidan? There might have been one better than him, and that was his predecessor [Vincent O’Brien].”

JB: I can finish that [quote] for you: “. . . and when the time comes that he can select one horse for the big day, and get it right, then he will at least be the equal.”

PK: That’s exactly what you said.

JB: Yeah, well he has never learned to do that.

PK: You’ve always been quite gracious about him down the years but he was your student, and it wouldn’t be normal if there wasn’t also a sense of . . .

JB: Someone who has taken my dinner?

PK: (Laughs) Yeah.

JB: Well, you lose more races than you win, and losing one more isn’t going to make that much difference. I did feel I should have got more support from him [on the issue of drugs in racing] when I said we didn’t have a level playing pitch.



2. A MAN FROM NOWHERE

Jim Bolger has cracked racing better than anyone else alive. With no background in the game, he has built his own training centre and his own stud to the extent that three quarters of his 100 horses, including Dawn Approach, the world’s most awaited three-year-old, have also been bred by him in his native Ireland. And that’s before we start talking about the press-ups. At 71, Jim still does 100 every morning.

“It’s a lazy man’s way of keeping fit,” he says characteristically dry, witty and challenging at the same time. In the early days the challenge and the dryness were more marked than the wit and the warmth beneath. It made him both a formidable opponent and a fearsome employer accentuated by his own rigid no-smoking, no drinking, mass-every-Sunday regime, and by the self-belief necessary for his entirely untutored entry into the training ranks. “He seemed to come from nowhere,” says the lucid and legendary John Oxx, himself the son of a trainer, “we looked at each other and said ‘Jim who?’”

Brough Scott,

Racing Post, January 2013



PK: You were born on Christmas Day in 1941, a birthday — Tony O’Hehir once observed — that “encouraged those who consider him a rather self-righteous individual to make obvious comparisons.”

JB: (Laughs) I don’t know where he gets self-righteous from. It’s construed from maybe confidence or . . .

PK: You’re a son of Walter and Katie Bolger, and grew-up on a farm in Co Wexford.

JB: Yes.

PK: Is it Oilgate or Oylegate?

JB: The county council spell it with an ‘i’ but all the residents spell it with a ‘y’.

PK: And you spelled it with a ‘y’?

JB: Yeah, but I’d prefer of course if it was Bearna na hAille.

PK: Tell me about your parents?

JB: Well, they would, as a couple, be very much part of the unsung heroes. They reared and provided for eight children. Joan was the eldest; Johnny and Paddy worked on the farm; I was number four; then Matt [RIP], Liam, Breda and Eilish.

PK: I’ve seen “strong” and “disciplined” ascribed to your father?

JB: Yes, well, he had been involved in the War of Independence and he always . . . with him it was country first, and he taught us to have respect for those who had achieved what was possible at the time.

PK: He was with Collins then, was he?

JB: He was with him up to the Treaty.

PK: You said “those who achieved what was possible at the time.” Is that not what Collins did?

JB: Well, they all achieved what was possible, but Collins and most of his people settled for what it was, and obviously the other half weren’t too happy.

PK: Your father wasn’t happy?

JB: No, far from it.

PK: But was that not the essence of the Treaty? Let’s settle for what’s possible here.

JB: What ‘they’ thought was possible, and recently we’re told that it might only have been four counties, so you can see when it comes to negotiations, how slippery the British establishment can be. I meet a lot of British people and you wouldn’t find better, their word is their bond, but when it came to politics their word was nothing, going back to the Treaty of Limerick.

PK: Did your father ever speak about the War of Independence? Had he ever fired a gun?

JB: It was never, ever, referred to, but you always knew . . . When you’d come out from mass on Sunday, the Blue Shirts were on the left, and my father and his pals were on the right. They would address each other but they weren’t pals.

PK: Is that something you observed?

JB: Well, it was obvious, but I think I had finished secondary school when I became aware that there had been a civil war. There were no civil war politics in Wexford. Fortunately. Our nearest neighbours would have been Fianna Fáil supporters on one side, and Fine Gael supporters on the other side, but we had an equally good relationship with both.

PK: What about your mother? I’ve seen ‘encouraging’ ascribed to her.

JB: Yeah, well, there were two good young men, neighbours, and they both excelled academically and my mother felt I should work hard in school and strive to attain what they attained. One was a senior executive in what was then the Department of Post and Telegraphs — a huge achievement because his father had been a farm worker. And it wasn’t all down to the Christian Brothers, but had the Christian Brothers not been there . . .

PK: The same Brothers who taught you?

JB: Yeah.

PK: Fifteen miles a day in-and-out to Enniscorthy on a bike?

JB: Yeah, and I wasn’t as fond of it as you.

PK: Did you do a Leaving Cert?

JB: I did my Leaving Cert hoping to get an agricultural scholarship, and I thank God every day that I didn’t succeed (Laughs). My first trip to Dublin was an interview to become a forester. It was my very first interview and I walked into this room at 45 Upper O’Connell Street and there were at least 10 people sitting around a shiny mahogany table. I was asked to take a seat and the questions began. I was six-to-four on to get the job because all you required was an Inter Cert, and I had a Leaving Cert that included agricultural science, and had even planted some trees. Anyway, the interview went okay and I got a letter a few weeks later: “A Chara, I regret . . .” (Laughs) So I’m equally grateful that happened, I’d be almost 15 years retired now!

PK: (Laughs)

JB: Now I’m not saying I wouldn’t have had job satisfaction, I probably would.

PK: Because you’ve always liked trees?

JB: Yeah, we’ve planted over 20,000 since we came here.

PK: So, after forester?

JB: Well, I’m still home on the farm at that stage and then, after Christmas ’59, I decided to try and get a job in Dublin and do accountancy at night time in the College of Commerce. I always figured that I’d have a business of my own and would need to be able to manage the financial side of it.

PK: What was it like being a young man in Dublin?

JB: It was very different.

PK: Where did you stay?

JB: A flat, 211 South Circular Road.

PK: (Laughs) It’s ingrained in your brain?

JB: Yeah, it was grand in the summertime; cold in the winter. And you had to always make sure you had a shilling for the gas meter.

PK: Where did you get the shilling?

JB: I got a job as an accounts assistant that paid three pounds a week. I think the social insurance stamp was four-and-sixpence, so that meant you got . . . sorry, I have to think in old money, two pounds 15-and-6? I had a bike on the HP and that was five-bob a week, and the digs were two pounds five I think, and that left about five shillings for whatever.

PK: Did you enjoy living in Dublin? Being on your own?

JB: I did, yeah. My eldest sister was there for the first year, and then she got a job in Wexford and at that stage I was on my own. But I had good friends, fellows I was in school with. I did a bit of hurling, and there was always a dance on a Sunday or a Wednesday night, and you’d meet all the lads.

PK: That’s a fascinating image: Jim Bolger at a dance.

JB: (Laughs) I know.

PK: How did you meet Jackie?

JB: We met at a dance in Dublin.

PK: Before you started training?

JB: Yeah, we were married at 23.

PK: Where’s she from?

JB: She was born in Kildare, on the Curragh, and grew up in Wexford.

PK: You didn’t know her before she came to Dublin?

JB: No, but growing-up in Wexford was a stamp of approval.

PK: (Laughs) So married at 23! Jesus!

JB: And a father at 24.

PK: Una?

JB: Yeah.

PK: And Fiona?

JB: Seven years later.

PK: That’s a lot of responsibility straight off the bat.

JB: Well, before there were any children I viewed it as a big responsibility.

PK: Getting married?

JB: Yeah: ‘I have to get this right.’

PK: How did you know? How were you sure?

JB: You’ve seen the cartoons, ‘Love is . . . ’?

PK: Yeah.

JB: Well, ‘Love is . . . sure!’ (Laughs) And you don’t see beyond that, but that doesn’t take away from the responsibility.

PK: So you were married in . . . 1964?

JB: 1965.

PK: I’ve read that you were working as an accountant “with a Dublin motor company”?

JB: Smithfield, the largest Ford dealer in Ireland.

PK: How did you start training?

JB: Well, I always loved horses and had sort of fantasised for years, ‘Wouldn’t it be lovely to work full-time with horses?’ And because I hadn’t, as it were, served my time with a competent trainer, I had to pick it up as I went along. I was doing a bit of showjumping and I bought some horses and traded them pretty well. The last one I had was quite useful; I got £13,000 for him in 1975, which was huge money at the time, and I decided to buy some horses and go racing.

PK: This is from a profile by David Walsh in the Sunday Tribune in 1990: “He was issued with a permit to train in 1975 and in that same year paid 400 guineas for a filly called Lovely Rhapsody. The association with Lovely Rhapsody had its significance: ‘She was the most difficult filly I ever trained. Fourth on her first run as a two-year-old, she won the following year and convinced me I could do it.’”

JB: Yes, she ran so well.

PK: So you got the permit in ’75?

JB: Yeah, and a licence in July ’76.

PK: What about the decision to leave what would be regarded as a safe or secure career for the path you’re going down? There must have been pressure?

JB: There wasn’t time for the luxury of pressure. The job was 17 or 18 hours a day, so there wasn’t much time for thinking ‘What if?’

PK: What did Jackie say?

JB: Jackie has always said that I was good at convincing people, including her.

PK: (Laughs)

JB: But I had told her what I was going to do if it didn’t work out.

PK: What was that?

JB: I was going to get a job in the building business. I wasn’t going back into an office, I wanted to be outdoors. I’m not very big but I could drive a shovel, and that was the get-out. But I have to admit that I did keep an eye on the ‘situation’s vacant’ columns for about six months, but after that I was on my way.

3. ‘LESTER PIGGOTT IS ON THE PHONE’

In the countdown to the King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Diamond Stakes, Jim Bolger told the world: “The St Jovite you saw at Epsom no longer exists. The colt is a totally different horse now and I am happy he’s as good as he was at the Curragh.” St Jovite was ridden this time by Stephen Craine in the absence through suspension of Christy Roche. Jim Bolger earned a lot of kudos for placing his trust in an Irish-based jockey rather than opting for an international ‘name’ rider, and his choice was to be handsomely rewarded.

Raymond Smith,

Tigers of the Turf



PK: What’s your first memory of watching a Classic?

JB: It would have been . . . when did television come in for us in Ireland?

PK: Was it 1962?

JB: Yeah, I was 19 at that stage and living in Rialto.

PK: So you would have learnt more through newspapers really?

JB: Yeah, we always had The Irish Press.

PK: Dev’s paper.

JB: Well, apart from it being Dev’s paper, one of the founders of The Irish Press, Robert Brennan, was married to my aunt Una. And their most famous child was Maeve Brennan, the writer, and that would have been the connection to The Irish Press as well. But we all read the paper. Our father got it first, and then it was whoever could grab it after that (Laughs).

PK: What was the first Classic that registered with you?

JB: In my very younger days it was following Vincent O’Brien’s horses — all his Gold Cup and Grand National winners. Then, when he switched to the Flat, the one that really registered was his first Derby winner, Larkspur. And PJ Prendergast was having winners at Royal Ascot and other prestige meetings, so I would have been aware of those too.

PK: And it was from studying both of them that you learnt the trade?

JB: Well, they were the movers and shakers and obviously, if you could get a handle on what they were doing and replicate it, that was going to be a huge help.

PK: Do you remember your first conversation with Vincent O’Brien?

JB: I’d never met him before I went training so it would have been just “Hello” or “Well done” when he trained a winner. Then, in my second year training, I had a two-year-old that beat him and Lester [Piggott] at the Curragh and that was just a huge day.

PK: You were still in Dublin at this stage?

JB: Yeah, at Lohunda Park in Clonsilla. I remember Jackie came into me and said, “Lester Piggott is on the phone.” I thought, ‘Yeah, it’s obviously some wise guy,’ but it was Lester. We had entered the horse that had beaten him at the Curragh in Longchamp, and he wanted the ride. So that was another boost. I thought, ‘If Lester wants to ride the horse, he obviously fancies the trainer as well.’

PK: But you didn’t give it to him.

JB: No, I met him that Sunday — the race was actually in St Cloud — and had an opportunity to explain in more detail than I did on the phone. So that was our introduction, and down the years I got to know him very well

PK: What did you actually explain to him?

JB: That I had a stable jockey, Declan Gillespie, and he had the call on all my horses.

PK: How did he take that?

JB: He thought it was rubbish . . .

PK: (Laughs)

JB: But that was Lester.

PK: But this is the greatest jockey of all time and he wants to get on your horse. Why wouldn’t you give it to him?

JB: Well, your ‘word’ has to mean something; if it doesn’t you have nothing.

PK: So it’s loyalty to Declan Gillespie?

JB: Yeah, but it’s also your word.

PK: But he would have known how it works.

JB: (Laughs) Well, we had an example of that the other day [Adam Kirby’s win on Adayar at the Epsom Derby, two days after he was ‘jocked-off’ the more-favoured John Leeper].

PK: I’m just trying to tease out why it was so important to you.

JB: Well, my father was like that — his word was his bond. If you haven’t got a word you have nothing.

PK: Another example was St Jovite in the King George when you gave the ride to Stephen Craine after Christy [Roche] was suspended. I’m pretty sure that was another call from Lester?

JB: Yeah he wanted it, and Mrs Payson [the owner of St Jovite] wanted Steve Cauthen. And I was very friendly with Steve Cauthen and knew how talented a jockey he was, but in the interest of Irish racing I wanted an Irish jockey, or at least an Irish-based jockey.

PK: Why was that in the interest of Irish racing?

JB: To promote Irish racing — if a trainer had confidence in one of the leading jockeys in Ireland, it was good for Irish racing. That that was the only — criticism is not the word because who am I to criticise Vincent O’Brien? — but the only manoeuvre of Vincent’s I wouldn’t have approved of, not using an Irish jockey. I mean, the Irish jockeys were there, all they needed was a bit of exposure on the world stage.

PK: That was pretty admirable.

JB: What?

PK: To keep saying ‘no’ to Lester.

JB: (Smiles) Yeah, he came to me after the race, and remember this was at the end of his career, and said, “Even my tired old arms would have won on him.”

PK: But you never wavered?

JB: No, and we never fell out either.

PK: You’ve had three stable jockeys: Declan Gillespie, Christy Roche, and Kevin Manning.

JB: Correct.

PK: Tell me about Kevin.

JB: Kevin is from Kilsallaghan, Jim Dreaper country. He arrived in Lohunda Park for a summer job when he was 12-years-old and has been around ever since. At that stage he was riding ponies, showjumping, but his big interest was always racing and when he got to 16, we signed him up and he was champion apprentice twice.

PK: I’m fascinated by that portrait [a large painting of them both hanging on his living room wall].

JB: Well, it wasn’t requisitioned, it was a present from Ruairí Ó Coileáin who had horses with me.

PK: You weren’t obliged to hang it up. You could have stuck it in the shed.

JB: That was never going to happen; Jackie would have seen that her son-in-law got a proper position.

PK: That was my next question: I’m just wondering how terrifying it must have been working for Jim Bolger when he finds out you’re dating his daughter.

JB: Yeah, but he would have known about my loyalty at that stage (Smiles). All my staff have a deep sense of security because of my reputation for being loyal.

PK: But you only had two daughters.

JB: And I had always hoped that one of them would marry a billionaire who would send me dozens of yearlings bred in the purple, but Kevin was the next best thing.

PK: (Laughs) I watched Una’s interview after the Guineas at the Curragh and she was absolutely thrilled. She has always been involved in the business?

JB: Yeah. She was the first person I told when I gave up the day job. She was eight or nine years old at the time, and I remember collecting her at a friend’s house on the way home that evening. “What are we going to live on?” she said (Laughs). There’s a photo here somewhere . . . [He leaves the room and returns a moment later with a faded print.] That was the first winner she led-in in 1977. It’s notable for another reason as well.

PK: Go on.

JB: That’s Joanna Morgan.

PK: Wow!

JB: Yeah, they’re beatifying Hollie Doyle now, but Joanna could ride as well as any of the males at that time. She was the first in Ireland.

PK: So Una always had an interest?

JB: A huge interest.

PK: And Fiona?

JB: (Laughs) No.

PK: She studied English?

JB: Yeah, she loves her English language and her poetry.

PK: No interest at all?

JB: (Laughs) She thinks I’ve wasted my life training horses; that I could have been doing something worthwhile.

PK: She wasn’t impressed that you named Poetic Flare after her?

JB: I’m sure she was quietly pleased but we wouldn’t hear a lot about it.

PK: Are you a good father?

JB: I’m adequate. They’ve turned out very well. You were talking about Una after the race, wasn’t that a very proficient interview?

PK: Yes it was.

JB: She could be — used isn’t the right word — but a great asset in the promotion of racing. And I don’t even know if she would take a job like that, but it wouldn’t be any advantage being Jim Bolger’s daughter.

PK: Go back to her husband. The portrait suggests a closeness. An intimacy.

JB: Well, I believe it’s the longest jockey/trainer partnership ever.

PK: It wouldn’t be easy to sack your daughter’s husband.

JB: (Laughs) No, it wouldn’t.

PK: Does that mean you’ve never shared a cross word?

JB: Never.

PK: Really?

JB: Principally because he delivers the goods. He’s capable and trustworthy and he suits me admirably. He’s also family, and I value family.

PK: You weren’t at the Curragh for your one-two in the Guineas.

JB: No, I watched it here with Jackie.

PK: What was that like?

JB: Well, there would have been silence up to about the two-furlong marker and then Jackie starts.

PK: Really?

JB: (Laughs) Oh yeah, rooting for the son-in-law.

PK: (Laughs)

JB: And I knew a furlong-and-a-half down that it was ours but I wasn’t sure which horse [Poetic Flare ridden by Manning, or Mac Swiney ridden by Rory Cleary] but I was delighted for Rory. And my delight for Rory was greater than my regret for Kevin because Kevin has won more, and will win more, but it was something that Rory had never dreamed about, even though he should have, because he was always good enough to win a race like that.

PK: So Jackie gets excited but you don’t get high or low?

JB: That’s about it.

PK: Even on a special day like that?

JB: Well I’m fairly sanguine most times. I’d get more animated watching Wexford in the Hogan Stand than I would at the races. But the Hogan Stand is my sport, and racing is my sport but it’s also my job, and I think it’s best not to get too animated.



4. JUST THE TWO OF THEM

“Dad always had faith in [the horse] and when I phoned him after the race I said, ‘Well done, you’re a legend . . . Gosh he did that well.’ And he said, ‘That’s exactly what I was expecting’ . . . I’m so thrilled for my parents because they’ve put so much into it over the years, from the time they started out, just the two of them, a small business and . . . look, it’s just amazing.”

A visibly emotional Una Manning on ITV after Poetic Flare won the St James’s
Palace Stakes at Royal Ascot on Tuesday



PK: Are you still doing 100 press-ups every morning?

JB: No, I’m going soft (Laughs), 50 in the morning and 50 in the evening.

PK: What time are you out of bed?

JB: Five thirty.

PK: Do you set an alarm?

JB: I do, but it would be unusual for me not to wake before.

PK: What time do you go to bed?

JB: Eleven on the dot. If I get five hours I’m fine.

PK: How long have you been doing that?

JB: Well, up to the age of 50 I had to have eight hours — I didn’t always get it but that’s what I needed. And the minute I hit 50 I was back to five or six. And it’s been like that now for 30 years nearly. I’ve read, or was told, that the Chinese say a man needs six hours sleep, a woman seven, and a fool eight, so that puts me on the right side.

PK: And me on the wrong side!

JB: (Laughs)

PK: Talk to me about your path through the racing world. I’ve always had a sense, rightly or wrongly, that you viewed yourself as an outsider.

JB: Well, I think anybody who comes in with no pedigree in racing is an outsider. And an outsider is the equivalent of a blow-in in rural Ireland.

PK: Another sense is that you’ve been — at war is probably too strong — but always had reservations about the Turf Club and the way they go about their business.

JB: I said it was 12-stones-seven on the back of racing, and that something had to be done about that. And what had to be done was to establish a body to take charge of the financial side — the Irish Horseracing Authority and now HRI [Horse Racing Ireland]. And things have improved massively from there.

PK: They have?

JB: Yeah, I said after a court case once with the Turf Club, that I would leave them with the whistle so they could referee the races on the day, and that’s basically where it is now. And that wasn’t popular with my fellow trainers, they didn’t think that was a good idea.

PK: You’ve never hunted with the pack?

JB: (Laughs) Well the pack didn’t much care for me, so it was never a question of hunting with them although, on an individual basis, I have very good relationships with a lot of Turf Club members. And I have to say that most of them have been very pleasant to me down the years, and I would hope I to them. There was one older member who came to me at the Curragh one day, and he says, “Jim, I shan’t be bothering you anymore.” I said, “Oh, I’m sorry to hear that.” He says, “Yes, I’ve been kicked upstairs.”

PK: (Laughs)

JB: So it hasn’t all been bad, and I’ve had letters from a good few of them after I won the English Guineas.

PK: What about relations with your fellow trainers?

JB: Well, I wouldn’t be flavour of the month with some of them, particularly since I brought up the question of the drugs.

PK: Ger Lyons was very good on Monday’s Off The Ball.

JB: Agreed.

PK: You only sent one runner to Royal Ascot last week?

JB: Yes.

PK: How did it feel watching the race?

JB: Well, I was a bit anxious waiting for the last few to be loaded, because he was a bit fidgety in the stalls, but Kevin got him settled and ready for the jump. He jumped [out] very smartly, I think he was about third or fourth, and I could see then that he was going to have a fairly clear path. And the pacemaker was going at a good lick, so I was happy it was going to be a true-run race.

PK: You watched it with Jackie?

JB: Yeah, here in the conservatory.

PK: Was she excited?

JB: She started about the two-furlong marker, but at that stage I knew it was all over. They were all under pressure and he was cantering.

PK: What about the build-up? There was a massive reaction to the interview last week. How did it feel in the middle of the storm?

JB: Well, I tend to take things in my stride and as we discussed before, when you have right on your side you don’t really have any serious worry. There may be occasions when it’s a bit uncomfortable with people who don’t see it the way I see it, or that it has to be done at this time, but if it’s not done it’s going to get worse — and if it gets worse as far as I am concerned the game would be up.

PK: Did you get a reaction?

JB: Yes, overwhelmingly favourable. There would only have been one call that questioned whether I was right to do it that way or not.

PK: Una was interviewed straight after the race and she had obviously spoken to you.

JB: She called me as soon as the horse had gone by [the post].

PK: (Laughs) She quoted you as saying “That’s exactly what I was expecting.”

JB: Well, I had tremendous confidence in the horse. I knew he had improved a lot from his Guineas run.

PK: She was elated and quite emotional about it.

JB: Well, she has a double involvement because her father trains the horse and her husband rides the horse, and it’s a huge responsibility for him on the day. And she works with me as well and there’s a lot on her shoulders, but she’s well up for it.

PK: When is the last time you went to a race meeting?

JB: Leopardstown at Christmas two years ago.

PK: You’ve said that suits you in a way.

JB: I didn’t say that publicly.

PK: You did! You told Fran Berry recently, and I quote, “It suits me very well.”

JB: (Smiles) Well I don’t have to travel home after I’m beaten.

PK: Why does it suit you?

JB: It’s very convenient. I come up from the yard, have some lunch, put the feet up and watch it on the box.

PK: You told Berry [not going] was harder for Jackie because she’s not getting out as much?

JB: Yeah, but she is now since she was released [vaccinated]. She has been to Dublin a few times and caught up with a lot of her old friends.

PK: But you’re not bothered. You could easily not go to another meeting again.

JB: True.

PK: Why?

JB: It’s a convenience thing I suppose. I don’t have to be there. I have terrific staff and I have full confidence in them, and Una is doing a better PR job than I would ever do.

PK: But what about, you know, the sense of occasion . . . full stands?

JB: Been there, done that.

PK: That doesn’t mean, and I say this with some trepidation, you’re getting old, does it?

JB: (Smiles) No, but it does mean I’m maturing beyond . . . I remember coming out of Leopardstown one night after I’d had three or four winners, and this big guy comes up and says: “Well done. I’d love to have a horse with you but when my father was dying he called the three of us in, he had three sons, and made us promise that none of us would ever have a hound, a hoor, or a horse.”

PK: Laughs.

JB: It was the most memorable backslap I’ve ever had.

PK: I’m just looking at a list of your greatest hits: Epsom Derby, Irish Derby, 1000 Guineas, Irish 1000 Guineas, 2000 Guineas, Irish 2000 Guineas, Oaks, Irish Oaks, Champion Stakes, Irish Champion Stakes, Dewhurst Stakes, King George and Queen Elisabeth Stakes . . . that’s a pretty amazing career.

JB: We’ve had 2,784 winners to date worldwide; Tuesday was our 50th Group 1.

PK: Does it feel like you’ve had a fantastic life?

JB: (Smiles) It feels like I’m still here.

[Maxbet]

Jim Bolger will be given the opportunity to substantiate claims made about drug cheats in Irish racing at a parliamentary hearing on July 6 when the sport's senior officials will also be quizzed about some of the comments made by the trainer in recent weeks.

Bolger first voiced concern about the issue last October when labeling the use of performance-enhancing substances as the "number one problem" facing the industry and said he knew the identity of the perpetrators. He has reaffirmed his stance in a series of Sunday Independent interviews with Paul Kimmage recently in which he demanded “a level playing pitch” in Irish racing.

When former cyclist Kimmage put it to Bolger that he was "seeing a lot of parallels with pro cycling", Bolger replied: "Well, there will be a Lance Armstrong in Irish racing."

Fianna Fail TD Jackie Cahill revealed that given the seriousness of Bolger’s accusations it was unanimously agreed at the government level to invite Bolger – along with senior members of Horse Racing Ireland, the Irish Horseracing Regulatory Board and the Irish Racehorse Trainers Association – to address the issue.

Cahill said: “There was a private meeting of the Oireachtas committee on Monday when we dealt with a request to investigate allegations made by Jim Bolger about drug cheats in horseracing. It was unanimously agreed that there were serious accusations made in the public domain and that we would hold committee meetings to address the situation.

“We agreed to invite Jim Bolger, HRI, the IHRB, the Department of Agriculture, and the Irish Racehorse Trainers Association. We have set July 6 as the date for the meeting and I would imagine, with the amount of people that will be attending, we will require two sessions to get through everybody.

"We would hope to have two two-hour slots on July 6 dealing with these allegations and then we will decide where we go from there.”

Bolger, who landed his 50th Group 1 at Royal Ascot last week when Poetic Flare won the St James’s Palace Stakes, declined to comment on whether he would take up the invitation to attend the hearing when contacted on Tuesday.

However, HRI boss Brian Kavanagh said he would attend if invited while a spokesperson for the IHRB said the regulator would welcome the opportunity to discuss its anti-doping strategies.

Niall Cronin, communications manager at the IHRB, said: “We would welcome the opportunity to meet the deputies and explain details of our equine anti-doping strategies and the advances that have been made in this area recently and over the last few years.”


Well, it's Put up or shut up time for Jim. He can't be aiming these accusations at people below him, and from both, winning and breeding perspectives, there's only one operation that makes the whole playing field uneven...hmmmm.

Makes you think, you don't know what to think!

[Grey]

This is a good piece from the Irish Times, written before the invitation to Jim
Bolger to speak to the committee



Drug cheats in horseracing: If Jim Bolger is right it makes watchdog’s role all but untenable

Whether the IHRB as it stands is the body to regulate in the long term is debatable


Brian O'Connor

1



Trainer Jim Bolger has declared drugs to be Irish racing’s number one problem and he doesn’t believe there’s a level playing field. File photograph: Bryan Keane/Inpho

Jim Bolger has suggested Irish racing’s regulator isn’t serious about catching drug cheats. He has said that if the Irish Horseracing Regulatory Board (IHRB) was doing its job properly they would have uncovered dopers.
If he’s proven right it amounts to incompetence at best, or even worse. Either way it would look to make the IHRB’s role as racing’s police body all but untenable.
The irony is that the IHRB has never been better armed to refute claims which cut to the core of the sport’s credibility. On the back of steroids scandals from almost a decade ago, there has been a structural transformation in Irish racing’s fight against drugs.
It has come at a glacial pace and often seemingly in spite of the industry’s own instincts. But the Department of Agriculture’s granting of authorised officer status to a dozen IHRB personnel last month was a final piece in a medication jigsaw that on paper matches up with any in the racing world.
It allows lifetime traceability and testing of thoroughbreds throughout their lifetime wherever they are. This is in conjunction with steps such as the appointment of a specialist head of anti-doping, the switch of testing to an internationally respected laboratory in England, and last year becoming the first major racing jurisdiction to introduce hair-testing of horses on race-days.
In comparison to blood or urine samples, taking hair from a horse can provide a historical record of medications given to it. So the IHRB possesses powers light years removed from when regulation was widely suspected to be little more than a fig-leaf exercise, a case of not looking very hard for fear of finding something.
Bolger, however, has rocked racing with his claims that drugs are Irish racing’s number one problem. He is so convinced some of his colleagues are cheating that an absence of positive tests simply means something else must be going on. Because he says he knows there is cheating. His insistence has both transfixed and divided the sport.
Just how rare it is for someone of Bolger’s stature in Irish racing to come out publicly and stand by their convictions like this can’t be overstated. He is one of the seminal figures in the game’s history and at almost 80 still competitive at elite level as shown by Poetic Flare’s brilliant Ascot victory last week.

Credibility

In a sport and industry infamous for insularity it is a commendable bucking of the traces from someone with impeccable credibility. Just as there is no arguing with Bolger’s credentials, there is also little room to argue about it requiring a figure of such stature to make accusations like this, and have them taken seriously, without providing any evidence to back them up.
All counter arguments from the IHRB about its zero tolerance policy on drugs, and the improvements it has made to ensure a clean sport, come up against Bolger’s insistence that while he hasn’t and can’t name names, or provide any smoking syringe, he knows there are cheats getting away with it.
Kevin Manning riding Poetic Flare to win the St James’s Palace Stakes at Ascot. Photograph: Alan Crowhurst/Getty ImagesIt looks to leave the trainer in a win-win situation. If cheating is proven he’s right; if it isn’t then he knows better. And it looks like the authorities are in a lose-lose scenario. If they uncover wrongdoing they face a barrage of ‘told-you-so.’ If they don’t the same ‘told you so’ gets shot at them. Everyone though has a stake in getting to the bottom of Bolger’s claims.
There is now a stalemate which has provoked a volatile vacuum into which all sorts of speculation has poured. The insidious nature of doping means no names make all names suspicious. It isn’t contradictory to both laud Bolger’s whistleblower instincts and point out that such a situation is unfair.


The Olympics line about it being easy to spot cheats because they’ve got the medals is trite but history makes it hard to dismiss. There is an obvious correlation to racing, one which even Bolger might admit could prompt cynical eyes to turn towards his own Classic rejuvenation this year. Wanting to believe the worst of people is as old a racecourse tradition as cursing the stewards.

If Bolger’s worst suspicions are proven correct there won’t be much room for debate

There are calls for something to be done to break the impasse although as is often the way of such things, it’s vague as to what that ‘something’ should be. Bolger’s tack is to simply catch the cheats. But he doesn’t have to go through the process of finding and prosecuting them to judicial standards. Maybe a twist on protected disclosure rules could break the stalemate but it’s all very murky.
Fundamental to all this, however, is how Bolger is hardly alone in his lack of confidence in the IHRB. It may be legislatively armed but, rightly or wrongly, doubts about its capacity to use those weapons properly, transparently and impartially still exist. The perception remains that old instincts about not looking very hard for fear of finding something might still linger.
It is a perception that has dogged Irish racing’s regulation and not without justification. If nothing else, Bolger has performed a service in publicly airing the matter, correctly arguing that short-term pain can lead to long-term gain. Whether the IHRB as it stands is the body to regulate in that long term is debatable.
Whatever structures are now in place there’s no ignoring that crucial credibility gap. Policing only works with buy-in and there’s no point pretending the regulator doesn’t continue to battle scepticism about its capacity, and perhaps just as importantly it’s motivation, to do a difficult job adequately. The sins and omissions of the past still dog it.


There are obvious problems about accountability when that police is a private, self-elected club basically regulating itself. It is an exclusive organisation but funded by millions every year from the public purse. Whether or not such a structure is suitable for the regulation of a state backed multi-billion euro industry and sport needs to be radically examined.
However, if Bolger’s worst suspicions are proven correct there won’t be much room for debate.

[LUKE]

Jim needs to give unequivocal answers to national politicians -I don't think he can do it.