HE is a breeder of champions and of stories.

Jim Bolger is an ascetic figure who lives an almost monastic life. He worships God and devotes his labours to producing winners of top-class races.

The fanfare of his triumphs comes against a murmur of fascinating anecdotes. Bolger, now 71, is a self-made multi-millionaire but his persona owes much to the tales that he has bred in a racing career that stretches back to 1976.

Bolger, of course, trains Dawn Approach, the short-priced favourite to win the Derby this afternoon. This is the least interesting thing about him, though.

His personality, his theories and his methods have had a substantial impact on the sport. Bolger's racing record is impressive. His breeding policies have been lucrative, particularly after he abandoned his use of Last Tycoon as a sire and switched to Galileo. But it is his effect on human beings that forms the core of the Bolger anecdote industry.

AP McCoy, the greatest jump jockey, was an apprentice at Bolger's yard at Coolcullen on the Carlow-Kilkenny border. "I heard my leg snap," he once said, recalling a fall from a horse when working out. "When I looked down I could see the bone sticking out. I remember Jim arriving a few minutes later and asking me whether I was sure it was broken."

Bolger recalled the incident when McCoy later intimated he was leaving for England to be a jump jockey. McCoy stated in his biography: "Jim said to me, 'I heard you at the bottom of the gallops screaming like a baby that morning. That happens to jump jockeys every day. You'll never make it'."

Then there is the employee who recalls that he was one of five lads who started on the same day. Four left before nightfall.

Then there are the myths, legends and lies. They are uniformly compelling and speak, ironically, to a truth. Bolger is, in his own words, a "card-carrying Catholic" who attends Mass regularly during the week and without fail on a Sunday. He insists, however, that he does not force his stable lads to do the same.

However, he is a tee-totaller and there is no drinking in his yards. Similarly, his premises are smoke- free. He decided in 1983 that no smoking was to be allowed. He had six smokers on his staff and he promised each of them £500 if they gave up before Christmas. Four stopped smoking, the other two left.

There is a bit of devil in the divine perfectionist. He once told a BBC interviewer that he celebrated his first winner by buying a six-pack of beer, driving under the influence throughout Ireland and finally throwing the empties through the window of a police station.

This is the Bolger humour, delivered with a face so straight one could ride a finish on it. If anyone is taken in, then it is their problem for not doing the research and discovering his disdain for alcohol and rowdiness.

Bolger always prepares properly. He came into racing in 1976 after finding book-keeping was not his vocation. He became, instead, a horse owner, trainer and breeder with the considerable help of his wife, Jackie. His success was immediate and has grown steadily and impressively. Bolger started with four horses in his first season and had four winners. He trained 18 horses in the next season, winning 22 races. New Approach won the Derby in 2008, St Jovite won the Irish Derby in 1992, and Dawn Approach is expected to add to his 2000 Guineas victory today.

Bolger's early success was built on his ability to produce winning fillies but his operation is now all-encompassing. He sold a majority stake to Sheikh Mohammed before New Approach won the Derby and has performed the same deal with Dawn Approach.

The business side of the operation is thus run with a steady hand but it is Bolger's ability to produce champions on four legs and two legs that intrigues. His racing operation is conducted on a scientific basis. He once replied sniffily to a suggestion that he had followed Martin Pipe's example in having a laboratory on site by declaring: "It was Martin who came over here and was impressed by our facilities. We have had a lab since 1985. The reason is simple: it took us three days to have a blood sample analysed before the lab and now it takes us three minutes."

Bolger's fastidious approach has included a devotion to the precepts of the Equinome equine genetics programme. Basically, this is a system that rates horses in three types: CC are best at 5-7 furlongs; CT are best at seven furlongs to one mile four furlongs; and TT are best at one mile two furlongs plus.

Interestingly, this "speed gene" test suggests Dawn Approach should not win the Derby but Bolger places his faith in the horse's class and equable temperament.

Dawn Approach will also be ready for the battle. Bolger constructs his gallops so that horses have to climb steadily, placing an emphasis on having them race ready. "I once lost my last tenner in the world on a horse at Phoenix Park," he said. "It never tried an inch. Next time it bolted in. I make sure mine always try."

This discipline extends to his staff. Bolger's yards have produced such as McCoy, Peter Scudamore, Paul Carberry and Aidan O'Brien.

There should no surprise in this. The Bolger methods are a mixture of the innovative and the traditional and they combine to produce success. His work ethic is also contagious. He seems to surround himself with like-minded obsessives who are consumed by winning.

McCoy believes his mentality was hardened by exposure to the Bolger regime. The trainer greets the news of applications for the post of stable boy with the observation: "Their parents must not like them very much."

His world is tough, demanding but ultimately rewarding. His slight smile disguises a substantial satisfaction. His motto to deal with the stress of dealing with capricious thoroughbreds is simple: "As long as you have horses you will have problems."

As long as Bolger has horses he will have winners, too.