Trainer Jim Bolger has cared little for popularity, but his success with exceptional pattern performers, such as New Approach, has been notable. Damien Eagers/PA
Jim Bolger has announced he’s downsizing his training and breeding operation. Irish racing’s enfant terrible isn’t going anywhere, though. He might even have a classic horse for next year in Mumhan. But it’s still a landmark in the career of one of the seminal and most distinctive figures in Irish racing history.
Since Bolger will be 84 on Christmas Day, any use of “enfant” 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’s maverick instincts remain timeless.
It means it’s probably just as well he has always cared little for popularity. It is the lone wolf’s fate to be far from all things to all men.
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