Towering Teofil lands another knockout win Towering heavyweight Teofil (8/13f) followed up two bumpers wins with success in Navan’s WTW Willis Towers Watson Maiden today, scoring for owner/breeder/trainer Jim Bolger and jockey Luke McAteer. Previously successful in Galway and Killarney bumpers this summer, the determined four-year-old debuted on the Flat at Thurles earlier this month, when finishing second, and today, in another tenacious display, made all to score by three-parts of a length from debutante Peace Pebble (25/1). Bolger’s travelling head lad Ger Flynn said "he's such a big horse, he's 17.2hh, and Luke said when you are used to riding Flat horses you are able to grab hold of them, but he’s a big, heavy horse to organise. “Luke was coming down the outside for what he thought was the better ground but he said the horse got lonely out there. He said once he went back over to the other horse, he picked up and went on again. "He said he is still a very big baby and will be nothing until next year. He says he will be a proper horse.” Flynn added “in Thurles, and the ground turned out really heavy for him and a horse got away on him but today, Luke was always going to ride him positively. He said he really wants to go half-a-mile further than today’s 1m6f, which is his minimum trip.” Teofil’s success comes in a month when Aidan O’Brien’s Darkness Falls became a Triple Crown contender, and 20 years since trainer Bolger floated the same rare possibility for today’s winning-sire Teofilo, who ultimately retired through injury before a Classic campaign. Quotes from Michael Graham
