Jim Bolger hoping for more Champions’ Weekend Magic

“I’ve never taken horse racing seriously enough to need an out,” says multiple Group 1-winning trainer Jim Bolger, who yesterday afternoon opened his Coolcullen yard to the press for a preview of Longines Irish Champions’ Weekend, which takes place on Saturday September 10 and Sunday September 11 at Leopardstown and the Curragh respectively.

Those words, delivered in customary tongue-in-cheek style, belie a career at the top of his profession spanning decades and a passion for hurling, which persistently raises its head in conversation throughout the afternoon.

He speaks proudly of his annual Hurling For Cancer charity match which ran for the fifth consecutive year in 2016, and has, to date, raised more than half a million euro.