Paisley Park on course to defend crown at Cheltenham

“He was a late

Ascot absentee in December”

FEATURED among 40 entries for the Stayers’ Hurdle at the Cheltenham Festival will be last year’s winner Paisley Park.

Emma Lavelle’s stable star was the dominant figure in the threemile division last year, winning all his five starts.

His unbeaten sequence culminated in victory over Sam Spinner at the 2019 festival and he made a good start to the present campaign in the Long Distance Hurdle at Newbury in November. Paisley Park should have tried to defend his crown in the Marsh (Long Walk) Hurdle at Ascot in December, but was a late absentee on the day due to the particularly testing conditions.

A serious threat on March 12 could come from Harry Fry’s If The Cap Fits, whose only attempt at the trip resulted in a thrilling win in the Ryanair Stayers Hurdle at Aintree. He made a successful reappearance in the Coral Hurdle at Ascot. Tom George has two strong entries in Marsh Hurdle scorer The Worlds End and Summerville Boy, winner of the Relkeel Hurdle at Cheltenham.

Ireland’s 19 possibles include 2018 winner Penhill, one of seven contenders for Willie Mullins. Other names to note for the Closutton handler are mares Benie Des Dieux and Laurina, as well as 2019 Supreme Novices’ Hurdle victor Klassical Dream.

City Island (Martin Brassil) and Minella Indo (Henry de Bromhead) were also Grade One-winning novices at the festival in 2019. Mouse Morris is hoping Sams Profile can stake his claim for staying honours at Gowran later this month. Morris, who landed the Stayers’ Hurdle 30 years ago with Trapper John, said: ‘The Stayers’ Hurdle is the aim with Sams Profile and his first run back will be in the Galmoy

Hurdle. We were thinking about going chasing with him, but he had a slight setback so we decided to stay over hurdles.’

The 2019 heroine Roksana, trained by Dan Skelton, is among 36 entries for the David Nicholson Mares’ Hurdle on March 10.

A formidable Irish challenge includes three of the best mares in training — Apple’s Jade (Gordon Elliott), the 2018 winner Benie Des Dieux and the unbeaten Honeysuckle (Henry de Bromhead). A dark horse among the entries could be Relegate, who is now with Colm Murphy.

Previously trained by Mullins,

Relegate captured the Weatherbys Champion Bumper in 2018 but failed to scale those heights last season. Murphy said: ‘Relegate is coming along nicely. We had a clear run for the last month. All being well, she will start off at the Dublin Racing Festival in a handicap hurdle.’