"I think when you live a life in racing, Colonel Gaddafi would be relatively benign in terms of some of the characters you come across" - Johnny Ward
On this week's Friday Night Racing, legendary trainer and breeder Jim Bolger reflected on his career in horse racing and the characters he met along the way.
Among those were his relationship with long-time rival trainer Dermot Weld and perhaps some more unlikely connections in the world of racing.
Colonel Gaddafi was one of the more left field names among Bolger's list of people he had dealings with.
'His people came looking for one of my horses' 💭
Jim Bolger discusses his unlikely connection to Libya's Colonel Gaddafi on Friday Night Racing 🏇
@GoRacing // #GoRacing
For more from Bolger & #FNR 👉https://t.co/JLwR0ShCEr pic.twitter.com/vblQoEU07y— Off The Ball (@offtheball) August 2, 2019
"His people then came looking for [one of my horses]," Bolger told Ger Gilroy on tonight's show.
"The name escapes me now, but he was a novice show-jumper who put on a couple of good shows. That helped in the early days. I think he went on to do quite well for him out there.
"It was an Irish agent who had the contact. There were about four or five from the army that came in and I think they bought about half of a dozen horses [in Ireland]. I was lucky enough that mine was one of them.
"I sold him a stallion then later on. He was a reasonable figure for a racehorse and [Gadaffi] bought him as a stallion. He was a good-looker so he knew he could cover the sport horses with him as well."
Bolger added: "He didn't consult me much in the latter years of his life."
