With just a fortnight to the Newmarket 1,000 Guineas Jim Bolger looks to be cranking his 2015 season into top gear at the right time, securing an 840-1 Curragh hat-trick that featured a 50-1 victory for Flight Risk in the Group 3 feature.
Considering the turf season opened at HQ last month with Ramone’s 100-1 Group 3 shock, Flight Risk’s win in the Big Bad Bob Gladness Stakes established a Curragh trend bookmakers can only hope continues.
Relying on Bolger to keep producing winners of all shapes, sorts and prices however has been a much more reliable guide to punters for decades and, after a relatively quiet start to the turf campaign, the Co Carlow based trainer doubled his tally in one afternoon.
The former Dewhurst winner Parish Hall repeated his 2013 Alleged Stakes success, leading home his former Group 1 winning stable companion Loch Garman, while Mimicking beat another stable companion, Ard San Aer, in the two-year-old maiden.
Flight Risk’s Gladness victory, however, caught most on the hop. It was just his second career success, but his entry by Bolger might have been a tip in itself.
“Pat O’Donovan rides him out regularly and told me the other day that he could be a Group 1 horse if everything fell right for him. Everything fell right, and he’s on his way,” the trainer said. “This better ground helped and I’d like to come back for something like this on Derby weekend.”
Bolger’s classic ambitions this year look to rest with a powerful group of fillies led by Lucida, a 10-1 third favourite in some betting lists for the 1,000 Guineas, a race he won with Finsceal Beo in 2007.
Classic entries
He confirmed Godolphin’s Rockfel winner on target for Newmarket. Stellar Glow and Saturday’s Salsabil Stakes runner-up Pleascach also hold classic entries.
Mimicking also carries Godolphin blue and overcame a wide passage to win convincingly. “She could go for the Marble Hill [at the Curragh next month] and maybe Ascot.”
Parish Hall’s finest hour in the Dewhurst came four years ago but he continues to show a very good level of form and was always in control of his Listed opposition despite topweight.
“He’s smart on his day when he gets everything right. The Mooresbridge [back at the Curragh in two weeks] is a possibility,” Bolger said.
