Bolger plotting direct Guineas route with Verbal Dexterity Verbal Dexterity will head straight to the Qipco 2000 Guineas without a prep run, trainer Jim Bolger has announced. The Vocalised colt looked every inch a Classic contender after winning the National Stakes last September, but could only finish fourth behind 2000 Guineas favourite Saxon Warrior in the Racing Post Trophy at Doncaster on his final juvenile appearance. Bolger is adamant his charge is better than he showed on Town Moor and appears quietly confident he will make his presence felt at Newmarket on May 5. Speaking in an At The Races stable tour, Bolger said: "His trainer didn't shine with him at the backend of last season. I was hoping to run him in the Dewhurst, but he didn't scope right leading up to it and we didn't run. "At that stage, he had a chance of being European Champion Two-Year-Old, so we decided to take a chance and run him in the Racing Post Trophy two weeks later, but it didn't work out and he never raised a gallop. "Considering that he never travelled, we were amazed at how close he finished for a horse that was so wrong. He was quiet for a month after that and it must have been a low-level bug that just knocked the edge off him. It wasn't a good day at the office for me and we paid the price for it. "He has done well over the winter. He was a very mature-looking two-year-old, but he has continued to grow well into himself. "I think he'll stay at least a mile and a quarter and he seems versatile with regard to ground. "The plan is to run him in the 2000 Guineas at Newmarket and he won't have a run before then. I'm very happy with him at the minute." Theobald was sacrificed as a pacemaker for Verbal Dexterity at Doncaster, but rounded off his campaign with a confidence-boosting win at Dundalk and now could test his Classic claims in the Craven Stakes at Newmarket on April 19. "I'm very happy with him. He's done very well over the winter and is a lot stronger now," said Bolger. "We ran him in the Racing Post Trophy to make the running and it wasn't very clever, as he just ran too freely on ground that didn't suit him. "I wanted to get his mind right after that, so that's why we kept him going and ran him at Dundalk in December. That worked out well, as he settled well and did everything right. "I'll probably enter him in the Craven, as he wants good ground and could well get it there." One of the more interesting older horses based at Glebe House is the impeccably-bred Goldrush, who is a daughter of Frankel out of Bolger's brilliant racemare Alexander Goldrun. The four-year-old won each of her three starts in 2017 including successive Listed contests at Dundalk. "She did very well last year and I'd say we'll start her back in Listed company and look to build from there," said the trainer. "I'd be hopeful she can win a Group race before the year is out. "I don't know if she'll be kept in training next year, but if she was given the time, she could be as good as her mother in the fullness of time."
