Dual Gr1 winning 3YO colt Poetic Flare (Dawn Approach-Maria Lee, by Rock of Gibraltar) will retire to stand at Shadai Stallion Station in Japan.
Racing Post reports that trainer Jim Bolger said: “This horse should have been particularly attractive to everybody. He proved himself on the track. He had the looks, the physique, the temperament and the mind. Everything you would look for in a horse, he had it. To use a well-worn cliche, if ever there was a horse who ticked all the boxes, he certainly did. The only place he came up a little bit short was when the ground wasn’t to his liking.”
Bred by Bolger, Poetic Flare raced in his wife Jackie’s colours, and all up, he won five of his 11 starts, two at Gr1 level.
Poetic Flare won his maiden on debut over 1200m as an early 2YO, then later in the season, he won the Gr3 Leopardstown Killavullan Stakes over 1400m to make it two wins from three starts at that age. In 2021, at three, Poetic Flare won the Listed Two Thousand Guineas Trial first up, then the Gr1 Two Thousand Guineas at his second 3YO start on a firm track.
Sent to France for the Gr1 Poule d’Essai des Poulains, he struggled on the soft ground.
Back to Ireland, he ran second on a heavy track in the Gr1 Irish Two Thousand Guineas, before winning the Gr1 Royal Ascot St James’s Palace Stakes over a mile on good ground.
Sent around against the older horses in his next three starts, all in elite company, he had two seconds and a third.
