Matt Brocklebank reflects on Bob Olinger's New Year's Day victory at Cheltenham and wonders if Gavin Cromwell has another National challenger on his hands.
Having been at the heart of one of the most indelible National Hunt moments of 2023, Rachael Blackmore and Henry De Bromhead were once again the toast of Cheltenham on New Year’s Day as Bob Olinger won the Dornan Engineering Relkeel Hurdle in the silks of big-race sponsor Robcour Racing.
A classic Honeysuckle-esque experience this was not, with four - let’s say characters - going to post for the two and a half-mile Grade 2, but Bob Olinger just shaded it over last year’s winner Marie’s Rock with punters beforehand, and in the end there was no doubting his superiority, the 6/4 favourite scurrying up the hill to score by a widening seven lengths.
Marie’s Rock – too buzzed up when said to be in need of the run on her Newbury comeback in the Long Distance Hurdle – now has serious questions to answer and seems likely to be heading back against her own sex in the Mares’ Hurdle, though she flopped in that race last year, don’t forget, before signing off with an encouraging second upped in trip at Aintree in April.
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Bob Olinger is unbeaten from three visits to Cheltenham.
Wind the clock back and watch him scoot clear of Gaillard Du Mesnil and Bravemansgame in the 2021 Ballymore Novices’ Hurdle and the only reaction you’d have to that previous sentence would be: ‘yeah, but only three?!’
Revisit the laboured and highly fortunate 2022 Turners success when Galopin Des Champs came down at the last, or Bob Olinger’s four subsequent starts for that matter, and you’d be left wondering whether he’d ever get his head in front again.
But De Bromhead isn’t just a trainer of great horses, he’s a great trainer no matter the horse, and after the comeback win in the Lismullen at Navan there was even talk of the smooth-travelling Bob Olinger potentially dropping back in trip to take on State Man in the Matheson Hurdle at Leopardstown.
When connections saw Impaire Et Passe heading there to cross swords with his stablemate rather than mop up what looked a bit of a gift over the intermediate trip at Cheltenham, I’d imagine minds were made up sharpish, but for all the high head-carriage and Blackmore’s pre-race concerns about him getting up the hill, it’s good to have a horse like Bob Olinger back firing on all cylinders again.
It also means Robcour have an extremely strong hand in this division, with Teahupoo and Irish Point laying down serious markers already earlier in the season. They’re both bound for the Paddy Power Stayers’ Hurdle, with Bob Olinger more likely to have an entry in the Champion itself before returning to what now looks his optimum distance in the Aintree Hurdle the following month.
A first meeting with Constitution Hill seems likely, then, and there’s no finer test of an individual’s resolve than when chances of victory are futile, but for now Bob is back and the New Year feels all the happier because of it.
Stump steadily growing into a strong stayer
Earlier, Ireland emerged on top again as Stumptown added to trainer Gavin Cromwell’s ridiculously good record on these shores when staying on strongly in the first-time blinkers to win the Paddy Power Handicap Chase.
This was Cromwell’s eighth winner in Britain since the start of October (from just 27 starters) and it was good to see the horse back in the groove after losing his confidence in an early collision during the Coral Gold Cup at Newbury.
He’d been eased a pound to a mark of 142 on the back of that low-key effort but will be rising up the ratings again based on this performance and is likely to be back in these parts for the Festival but could also be somewhere near the sort of rating required to make the cut for the Grand National.
Stumptown’s occasionally low jumping would have been a major concern in the National of old but they tend to get away with brushing through the top of the fences there these days and Stumptown is obviously pretty versatile ground-wise too.
Whether that’s a race connections will consider this time around is open to debate as he’s just turned seven, but Cromwell saddled the eight-year-old Vanillier to finish second at Aintree last April and it’s not hard to see Stumptown relishing marathon trips before long.
The Ultima-National salvo didn’t work out too badly for Corach Rambler last term and, with the Aintree weights already published by Cheltenham, it obviously meant he went to Merseyside 10lb ahead of the assessor.
The Coral Gold Cup had been waiting to be advertised but it received another timely boost in the very next race as Shakem Up’Arry – an eyecatching sixth on his previous start at Newbury – dropped back in trip to win the Paddy Power New Year’s Day Handicap Chase.
To get a high-profile victory with this horse, who had promised so much on many occasions in the past, must have come as a massive relief to trainer Ben Pauling, but there wasn’t a broader smile on the day than the one carried by winning rider Ben Jones.
It was the 2020 Festival when Jones was agonisingly beaten a short-head by Indefatigable on Pileon in the Martin Pipe Conditional Jockeys’ Handicap Hurdle, and he was 0-27 at the track overall. Just what it meant to tick that stat over to 1-28 was etched all over his face.
No such joy on this occasion for connections of Turner Novices’ Chase and Paddy Power Gold Cup winner Stage Star, the antepost favourite for the Ryanair Chase with a few firms ahead of his latest Cheltenham assignment.
The writing was on the wall for him some way from home, arguably too far out for it simply being a matter of him struggling to defy the big weight, and it was no surprise to see his Festival odds had drifted markedly by the close of play.
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