In Cheltenham’s Guinness Village, brian acheson stood within earshot of a band playing “It Must Be Love” and talked about a horse who has become family. Bob Olinger, unbeaten at this course and now bidding for a fourth Festival win, has given him milestones he measures in memories, not trophies. Another of his horses, Teahupoo, is slated for the Stayers’ Hurdle, yet the conversation keeps circling back to Bob.
Brian Acheson and Bob Olinger in Cheltenham’s Guinness Village
Asked what sets Bob apart, brian acheson didn’t reach for form lines. He reached for a summer ritual. “When we bring the horses home for the summer, he’s the one I’ll go out and sit in a field with, ” he said. “He’ll ignore me. I swear to God. I’ll get in, he’ll see me, turn his back and he’ll walk off and do his own thing – but I couldn’t care less!”
He has a son, Rob, and a daughter, Courtney. His “third child, ” he says, is Bob. The now 11-year-old gelding is named after the last man killed by Billy the Kid, a detail Acheson shares without flourish, as if to ground the myth-making around a horse whose personality he calls his “horse of a lifetime. ” Friends Audrey and Greg Turley, he notes, have had their own once-in-a-generation runner with Galopin Des Champs. Still, his voice settles on the same refrain: “It’s everything about him, his whole personality and everything he’s been through. ”
Relkeel Hurdle 2024 and the Ballymore win that shaped a bond
The crowd at Cheltenham has its own relationship with Bob Olinger, and Acheson has a snapshot for that, too. On New Year’s Day 2024, as afternoon light thinned, Bob cut through the gloom to win the Relkeel Hurdle “on the bridle. ” Some 30, 000 people were there. Acheson, who had sponsored the race, was stunned by the reception as the gelding and Rachael Blackmore coasted up the hill.
The first great lift, though, arrived in 2021 in the Ballymore Novices’ Hurdle. The Festival was held behind closed doors, and Acheson watched from a friend’s house. He prefers to stand alone when his horses run, but as the race started, Rob took his place beside him. “To have my right-hand man, my best friend there as Bob won… God, I’m emotional now!” he recalled. He and Rob often argue over horses, he added with a smile, but that day told them they were on the right track. Rachael Blackmore later said just remembering that thunderous performance gave her goosebumps.
Henry de Bromhead, Teahupoo and the fourth win Bob Olinger now chases
Bob Olinger gave Acheson his first Cheltenham breakthrough five years ago and is trained by Henry de Bromhead. The owner’s world outside the rails is demanding — he is Chief Executive of Dornan Group, a mechanical, electrical and construction company — but the calendar bends around days like these. When he speaks of what comes next, he returns to Bob’s unbeaten record at Cheltenham and the possibility of one more ascent of the hill.
There is another storyline in his colors this week. Acheson will also have a runner in the Paddy Power Stayers’ Hurdle — Teahupoo, the 2024 winner of that race. Even so, Teahupoo barely surfaces in the conversation. The gravity keeps pulling back to the gelding who changed how Acheson spends his summer evenings and how he watches a race — sometimes alone, sometimes with his son beside him, always measuring the day by what it adds to their shared archive.
Back in the Guinness Village, the song faded but the theme lingered. Love, with a little madness. The next confirmed step is clear: Bob Olinger, still unbeaten here, bids for a fourth Festival triumph. And when the horses come home, Acheson knows where he will be — out in a quiet field, finding the same old seat beside the horse who made those memories possible.
