‘He Is Back Now’–Rejuvenated Bob Olinger Stars In Stayers’ Hurdle

[Wandering Eyes]

CHELTENHAM, UK–Rarely has a race ever epitomised the old sporting saying, 'form is temporary, class is permanent', like the 2025 running of the G1 Paddy Power Stayers' Hurdle, won by the enigma that is Bob Olinger (Ire) for a trainer and jockey combination desperately in need of a pick-me-up at the start of play on the penultimate day of the Cheltenham Festival.

That Bob OIinger was available to back at 20-1 the night before this three-mile contest was symptomatic of how far he'd fallen from grace in just a few short years, having been considered the next big thing in National Hunt racing after an unbeaten campaign in novice hurdles. It culminated with a thumping Grade 1 success at this meeting, after which he was being talked about as a future winner of everything from the Champion Hurdle to the Gold Cup. Certainly, nobody would have believed then that his first start in one of the four championship races at the Festival would instead come in the Stayers' Hurdle, some four years later.

Now 10, the son of Sholokhov (Ire) has taken trainer Henry de Bromhead around the houses on his route back to the top table, but that's where he finds himself again after this comprehensive defeat of reigning champion Teahupoo (Fr) (Masked Marvel {GB}) in a one-two for owners Robcour. In what has always been his customary fashion when on a going day, he tanked into contention under Rachael Blackmore and was ultimately well on top at the line, beating Teahupoo by a length and three-quarters to reward those who'd kept the faith and backed him heavily into an SP of 8-1. The Wallpark (Ire) (Ask {GB}) was eight lengths further back in third, while Home By The Lee (Ire) (Fame And Glory {GB})–who arrived on the back of two consecutive defeats of Bob Olinger at Navan and Leopardstown–unseated JJ Slevin after being badly hampered at the sixth.

“Rachael was brilliant on him,” an elated De Bromhead said of his first Stayers' Hurdle winner. “We'd said if you're going to get beaten, get beaten for coming too late. [I'm] delighted for the horse. He had such a reputation a few years ago and things didn't work out as well as we thought, but to see him come back and do that is amazing.

“[I'm] delighted for everyone involved, especially David Roche, my assistant at home, who would take a bullet for this horse. He adores him. He won the Ballymore and then we had a couple of funny old years with him, but he is back now. You always hope they can win another big one like this, but I never foresee anything. You live the dream and maintain them as best you possibly can.”

It was only a matter of weeks ago that there were concerns about the health of the De Bromhead stable, after a lean period in which it sent out only six winners from 90 runners in the months of January and February combined. With that backdrop he could be forgiven if he was feeling a bit anxious after drawing a blank on the first two days of this year's Festival, with no Honeysuckle (GB) (Sulamani {Ire}) to call upon this time, the champion racemare who won on the opening day of the meeting every year between 2020 and 2023.

He added, “The last few years we have always had Honeysuckle to get off the mark on the Tuesday, so it was feeling a little bit lonely. But I was happy yesterday as they were all running well and these guys had similar chances to those yesterday–but we got the rub of the green today.

“Rachael is just so good. She is such a professional and works so hard. When she came back from her injury our horses were in a bad vein of form, but she just does what she does. She is class.”

Certainly, nobody ever questioned the class of Blackmore, but she too has had a difficult season after sustaining a neck injury in September which kept her on the sidelines for around three months. The most successful female rider in the history of National Hunt racing, she had ridden only three winners in 2025 when she arrived at Cheltenham, the stage where she has shone in recent years with a pair of Champion Hurdle victories aboard the aforementioned Honeysuckle, as well as celebrating wins in the Gold Cup with A Plus Tard (Fr) (Kapgarde {Fr}) and the Queen Mother Champion Chase with Captain Guinness (Ire) (Arakan).

As such, it wasn't just Bob Olinger whose form needed a boost at the start of the week, but De Bromhead and Blackmore were already on the scoreboard by the time he went to post for the Stayers' Hurdle, after the jockey produced a masterclass on Air Of Entitlement (Ire) (Westerner {GB}) to win the G2 Ryanair Mares' Novices' Hurdle which opened the card.

“It's a magical place to be up here,” said Blackmore after her last-gasp victory on the strong-staying Air Of Entitlement, who is out of a half-sister to the Irish Grand National winner Rogue Angel (Ire) (Presenting {GB}). “She did it really well and came through the race lovely. I want to dedicate this to my cousin, Robert Blackmore, who passed away at the weekend. His funeral is today, so I want to dedicate this to him.”

She added, “We [the De Bromhead team] have had a quieter [first] two days. Walking home on Tuesday, I feel I've been spoilt the last couple of years getting to go home with a winner on the Tuesday. Henry just does such an incredible job with them when he brings them over here for Cheltenham. They all run above themselves and I'm very lucky to be on some of their backs.”

Thursday's double took the Festival totals of De Bromhead and Blackmore to 25 and 18, respectively, with the success of Bob Olinger also giving them both a rare clean sweep of the four championship races.

They are joined in the select group of people to have achieved that feat by the likes of Paul Nicholls and Willie Mullins, both of whom were also among the winners on Thursday. Mullins took his unprecedented tally at the Festival to 109 when Fact To File (Fr) (Poliglote {GB}) ran out a brilliant winner of the G1 Ryanair Chase, while Nicholls brought up his half-century when Caldwell Potter (Fr) (Martaline {GB}) made all to land the G2 Jack Richards Novices' Limited Handicap Chase.

Bought for €740,000 at last year's Caldwell Construction Dispersal at Tattersalls Ireland, Caldwell Potter has been unfairly maligned this season with that price tag hanging over his head and just one win to show for his efforts since joining Nicholls. This was much more like it, though, as he powered to a poignant success, passing the post six and a half lengths clear of his rivals in the yellow colours with red star which belonged to the late John Hales, who died at the age of 85 in January.

“I'm delighted for the Hales family and for John–he'll be up there watching,” said Nicholls. “The reason John bought this horse is because he lost Hermes Allen and wanted something to replace him. John put his money where his mouth is and bought him.

“It's irrelevant what they cost. When they come into the yard they are all worth the same, they're drinking the same, and some of them take a bit of time to get to know and get the best out of. But we got him right and he's a proper horse–he just needed a bit of patience. I was convinced he's a stayer. He'll gallop all day, he jumps well, and I think we're just scratching the surface with him.”

It was a lack of conviction in Fact To File's staying ability which saw him line up in the Ryanair Chase, rather than take on stable-mate Galopin des Champs (Fr) (Timos {Ger}) for a fourth time this season in Friday's G1 Boodles Cheltenham Gold Cup. The shorter trip of the Ryanair certainly looked to play to the strengths of Fact To File as he breezed to a nine-length defeat of De Bromhead's Heart Wood (Fr) (Choeur du Nord {Fr}), though Mullins did not rule out a tilt at the 2026 Gold Cup with JP McManus's rising star of the chasing ranks.

“I do agree that he might have been the horse to give Galopin des Champs a battle tomorrow in the Gold Cup,” said the trainer. “He was in it, but he [McManus] felt it was better to bide our options. He'll probably be a Gold Cup horse next year. JP didn't want him to have a very hard race in the Gold Cup this year–sometimes that can ruin a horse's career. I'm not going to say any more about two-year plans after Lossiemouth, but another year might be right. I think that's what we're looking at.”

McManus went on to bring up a brace of his own when Jagwar (Fr) (Karaktar {Ire}), trained by Oliver Greenall and Josh Guerriero, won the TrustATrader Plate Handicap Chase, but he had to settle for the runner-up spot in the finale, the Fulke Walwyn Kim Muir Challenge Cup Amateur Jockeys' Handicap Chase, when Johnnywho (Ire) (Califet {Fr}) was overhauled by Paul Nolan's rallying Daily Present (Ire) (Mahler {GB}) in one of the most thrilling finishes of the meeting so far.

As for heartwarming results, Friday's action will do well to better that of the Pertemps Network Final Handicap Hurdle, won by Doddiethegreat (Ire) (Fame And Glory {GB}) in the familiar colours of Honeysuckle owner Kenny Alexander. Alexander has promised to donate all of the prize-money won by the Nicky Henderson trainee to the My Name'5 Doddie Foundation, the charity created to fund research in the battle against motor neuron disease. Former Scottish rugby union player Doddie Wear raised millions through the organisation before his death in November 2022, six years after being diagnosed with the disease.

“I rode him at Haydock on a busy Saturday about a month ago and he ran well,” former champion jockey Brian Hughes said of his first Festival winner since 2018. “I said to Kenny that he had a bit of back class, so you're always clinging on that he'd produce it.”

Produce it he did–form is temporary, class is permanent, after all.

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