There are faster and better horses in training than Paisley Park, but none that are more popular with the Cheltenham racegoers. Emma Lavelle’s 10-year-old took centre stage once again here, beating off Champ, the odds-on favourite, in the Cleeve Hurdle before getting three cheers from the crowd as he returned to the winner’s enclosure after his first victory since December 2020.
It was a dramatic performance by Paisley Park from start to finish, as the 2019 Stayers’ Hurdle winner whipped round and handed his rivals many lengths at the start. In the final half-mile, however, much of the determination and limitless stamina that carried Paisley Park to the staying hurdlers’ championship had returned. Having been a 33-1 shot for this year’s race in the morning, he is now an 8-1 chance to reclaim the title after a three-year gap.
“He was able to make the ground up and Aidan [Coleman] did that quietly, quietly,” Lavelle said. “Then he just kept galloping and that was vintage Paisley.
“There is nothing like having a winner at Cheltenham with that walk-in and that noise, that’s what we’ve missed during Covid. It means so much to all of us that they have taken to him like we have.”
The only thing missing was Paisley Park’s owner, Andrew Gemmell, who is recovering in hospital after heart surgery. “He has just had a new valve fitted,” Lavelle said, “but he will be back for the Festival, don’t you worry.”
Champ, who finished nearly four lengths behind Paisley Park, went into the race as a narrow favourite for the Stayers’ Hurdle but is now out to 6-1, in a market headed by Flooring Porter, last year’s winner, at 7-2.
It was still a significant afternoon for JP McManus, Champ’s owner, however, as his famous green and gold colours had earlier been carried to victory for the 4,000th time aboard Chantry House, the 5-6 favourite for the Cotswold Chase.
Hereford 1.00 Black Poppy 1.30 Perryville 2.00 Switch Hitter 2.30 Powerstown Park 3.00 Eritage 3.30 Stratagem 4.00 Sweet Auburn
Plumpton 1.40 Coolnaugh Haze 2.10 Guguss Collonges 2.40 Hecouldbetheone 3.10 Innisfree Lad 3.40 Rose Of Aghaboe 4.10 Legal Ok
Wolverhampton 4.30 Lincoln Dream 5.00 Famous Star 5.30 Umm Hurair 6.00 Denzil’s Laughing (nap) 6.30 Achnamara 7.00 Flatley 7.30 Thapa Vc (nb)
Chantry House’s performance was neither foot-perfect nor entirely comfortable, and he did not jump or travel with any real fluency for much of the race. But it was still a big improvement on his disappointing run when favourite for the King George VI Chase at Kempton on Boxing Day and he is now a 16-1 chance for the Cheltenham Gold Cup on 18 March.
“The [first-time] cheekpieces were a bit of a response to Kempton,” said Nicky Henderson, Chantry’s House’s trainer. “He was very sharp before that and he just wasn’t on the day, he was lost after three or four fences.
“Nothing gives me more pleasure [than training McManus’s 4,000th winner] and it’s lovely that it’s not at Ballygobackwards, it’s here in a proper race at Cheltenham.”
Ireland’s buying power when it comes to useful jumping prospects was underlined in the juvenile hurdle as Pied Piper, who was bred by the Queen and raced for her on the Flat, sauntered home on a tight rein and replaced Fil Dor, a stable companion at the Gordon Elliott yard, as favourite for the Triumph Hurdle.
Pied Piper won two of his 11 starts on the Flat before being sold for 225,000gns to his current owners, Caldwell Contruction Ltd, who have more than 20 horses in training with Elliott, including Fil Dor.
The only Irish-trained runner in the race stretched nine lengths clear of the runner-up, Moka De Vassy, under a motionless Davy Russell and is now top-priced at 3-1 for the Triumph Hurdle on 18 March with Fil Dor – who is due to run at the Dublin Racing Festival next weekend – on 7-2. Gary Moore’s Porticello, at 16-1, is the shortest-priced contender from a British stable.
