Pedigree Pointers: Cassie Tully on Jim Bolger and Doncaster hero Mac Swiney

Fourteen years ago, a young colt owned, bred and trained by Jim Bolger became Galileo’s very first Group One winning juvenile.

The following year, a colt that Bolger purchased at Goffs yearling sale for €430,000 and trained himself, became Galileo’s second.

Both colts, who went by the names of Teofilo and New Approach, were unbeaten dual Group One winning two-year-olds, who won the exact same sequence of races and are still joining forces with Bolger for success at the highest level today.

Teofilo retired to Kildangan Stud after his one brilliant year on the track due to injury. But New Approach continued on to add the Epsom Derby and both the British and Irish Champion Stakes to his tally before retiring to Godolphin’s British base, Dalham Hall.

Bolger, who is considered by many including himself, to have put the planet’s greatest sire Galileo on the map, did contribute tremendously to his early success. Along with these two Champions, Bolger also bred Irish Derby hero Soldier of Fortune in the same year as Teofilo.

And fourteen years on as the 2020 flat season in Europe winds to a close, Bolger and his past pupils all had a weekend of a lifetime.

Jim Bolger bred two of the weekend’s Group One winning juveniles: Mac Swiney whom he owns and trains and is by New Approach; and Gear Up whom he sold as a yearling for €52,000 and is by Teofilo.

Bolger also bred, owns and trains the Group Three Eyrefield Stakes winning colt Flying Visit (out of a Teofilo mare), and Teofilo also sired the Group One Prix Royal Oak winner Subjectivist.

It is the former, the Group One Vertem Futurity Trophy winner Mac Swiney who is most fascinating and for Bolger, most satisfying one would have to imagine.

Mac Swiney is not only by New Approach, but he is out of the Teofilo mare Halla Na Saoire. Combining two sons of Galileo, the two sons whom Bolger trained himself to win seven Group One races in total, the mating produced inbreeding to Galileo of 2x3.

Mac Swiney represents the first Group One winner inbred to Galileo and it is both apt and a phenomenally remarkable achievement that Bolger has been rewarded with a Group One winner that combines two of his own superstars and is also inbred to the sire into whom he put most faith.

But it is not just the sire lines. This is a female family that Bolger has been nurturing for generations. He purchased Mac Swiney’s third dam Amoura back in 1994 from the Keeneland November Breeding Stock Sale for just $5,000.

It is an extended pedigree that has been growing in all the right ways since Bolger’s purchase. Within Mac Swiney’s fifth dam is a strong Aga Khan branch which has developed to produce the Group One winners Estimate, Enzeli, Ebadiyla, Edabiya as well as Taghrooda since 1994.

Amoura had already produced seven foals before Bolger acquired her and he immediately sent the daughter of Northfields to the Epsom Derby winner Quest For Fame who was standing in Kentucky at that time. The resultant offspring was a filly named Siamsa who won two handicaps for Bolger and is Mac Swiney’s second dam.

Siamsa’s second foal Halla Siamsa (by Montjeu), was sent to Teofilo in his first year at stud and this mating gave life to his first Group One winner, Parish Hall.

Siamsa herself was also sent to Teofilo that same year and produced the Group Two Derby Trial Stakes winner Light Heavy who placed third in the Irish Derby behind Camelot.

And returning to Teofilo again the following year, Siamsa produced Light Heavy’s full-sister, Halla na Saoire.

Halla na Saoire did not race herself but her fourth foal and first stakes performer to date is this year’s Vertem Futurity Trophy winner Mac Swiney.

Also winner of the Group Two Futurity Stakes at the Curragh like his Bolger trained father and grandfather, Mac Swiney was purposely named by Bolger in remembrance of the Irish politician Terence Mac Swiney who died after 74 days of Hunger Strike almost 100 years to the day that this Mac Swiney won his first Group One.

Mac Swiney represents the eighth Group One winner for his sire New Approach who stands for a fee of £30,000 at Dalham Hall, and the first at the highest level for Teofilo as a broodmare sire.

He has joined a list of real heavyweights amongst past winners of the Vertem Futurity Trophy (previously the Racing Post Trophy). Not only have the last three winners gone on to win the 2000 Guineas at Newmarket the following year, but previous winners also include Derby winners and top sires Camelot, Authorized, Motivator and High Chaparral.

Of Teofilo’s 15 Northern Hemisphere Group One winners, Jim Bolger, one man, has bred one third of them, and similarly one quarter of New Approach’s. Not only did he contribute to putting Galileo on the map, but the stallion careers of two of his sons as well.

No pressure Mac Swiney, we are all dreaming of your 2021 Classic campaign.