Crambo has best chance to deny Paisley Park a perfect send-off
There would be no better way for Paisley Park to bow out to a well-earned, comfortable retirement down on the farm than to win a second Stayers’ Hurdle at Cheltenham this afternoon.
The crowd would go bonkers, especially if it involved one of the old boy’s trademark rallies up the hill to snatch a glorious victory from the jaws of defeat.
He’s done it many times before. Can he, at the ripe age of 12, do it again, one last time, for trainer Emma Lavelle and blind-from-birth owner Andrew Gemmell, whose close pals will, as ever, feed the pictures through his mind’s eye?
Yes he can, which is not to say he will. The romantic ending has been thwarted three times already in this final season, each time by the skin of his teeth, first by Dashel Drasher at Newbury, then by Crambo at Ascot and most recently by Noble Yeats on Cheltenham trials day.
Those three spoilsports are also here for the big one and, at today’s weights, Crambo, bidding to become local trainer Fergal O’Brien’s first ever Festival winner, has the best chance of beating him again.
At seven, Crambo and last year’s close third Teahupoo lead the youth incursion in a contest dominated by an old guard, still hanging on.
It might well be their time, but in such testing conditions, experience may count even more than usual so veterans like Dashel Drasher, last year’s winner Sire Du Berlais and Paisley Park – still almost as good now as he was when successful back in 2019 – could be tough nuts to crack.
The heart wants Paisley Park to win and the head agrees that he could do it and bring the house down. Whatever, he’s a very decent eachway shout at 14-1.
The Ryanair Chase is open, too – yesterday the bookies were going 9-2 the field. Last year’s winner, Envoi Allen, heads the market and the 10-year-old looked in good nick the last time we saw him when running Gold Cup hope Gerri Colombe close at Down Royal.
But a chance may be taken with Protektorat. Third and fifth in the last two Gold Cups, he then lost his way for a spell before bouncing back with good showings behind L’Homme Presse at Lingfield and Shishkin at Newbury.
Dan Skelton has taken the bold step of dropping him back to two and a half miles quite late in his career, rather than banging his head against another Gold Cup wall, and that could prove a smart move, especially on the testing ground.
There are even better prospects of a home win in the other Grade One, the Turners Novices’ Chase, in which Ginny’s Destiny, Iroko and Grey Dawning dominate the market alongside Ireland’s best, Facile Vega.
This could go to Iroko, successful over hurdles at the last festival and looking a natural over fences when scoring as he pleased at Warwick in the autumn.