'Approach' helps ease sense of loss

Whatever regrets the Bolger family may have had after the retirement of their European 2-year-old champion Teofilo earlier this month evaporated Saturday at the Curragh as their juvenile New Approach landed the Group 2, $169,000 Futurity Stakes.

Trained, like Teofilo, by Jim Bolger, and owned, like Teofilo, by the trainer's wife, New Approach led throughout under Kevin Manning as the 8-11 choice to defeat 40-1 maiden longshot Curtain Call. Henrythenavigator, winner of the Group 2 Coventry Stakes, was third. The time for the seven furlongs on soft ground was 1:29.00.

The similarities between New Approach, who is out of Irish Champion Stakes winner Park Express, and Teofilo are uncanny. Both are sons of Galileo, both won their maidens going seven furlongs at the Curragh, both followed up with victories in the Group 3 Tyros Stakes, and both won the Futurity.

It is hardly a stretch of the imagination to see Bolger running New Approach in the two races that capped Teofilo's championship season, the Group 1 Prix Jean-Luc Lagardere at Longchamp on Oct. 7 and the Group 1 Dewhurst Stakes at Newmarket on Oct. 20, both at seven furlongs.