PAI BACK TIME FOR LAVELLE
PAISLEY PARK staged a stirring comeback for a Cleeve Hurdle hat-trick that saw his odds slashed from 33-1 to 6-1 for the Stayers’ Hurdle in March.
Emma Lavelle’s stable favourite suffered an uneven heartbeat in defence of the three-mile crown he had captured in 2019 — and his struggle for form this winter prompted the trainer to consider switching the 10-year-old to fences.
A renaissance looked improbable as Aidan Coleman’s mount grudgingly agreed to start the Grade 2 trial — forfeiting a dozen lengths. But Paisley Park powered up the hill to floor 8-15 favourite Champ by three and a half lengths and earn a thunderous ovation.
“It was really emotional with all the support we get from everybody for Paisley — and what he has done for us,” said Lavelle.
“Missing the start — I was ‘Oh, my God! — but Aidan was able to make up the ground quietly, and then he kept galloping.
“Coming here today, it almost felt like the Festival, with all the noise and the cheers, and if there was ever a horse to be willed up the hill, it is probably him.
“That was vintage
Paisley and he goes to the Festival with a puncher’s chance.”
Champ, who had yesterday’s winner back in third when landing the top-level Long Walk Hurdle at Ascot a week before Christmas, was pushed out to 6-1 (from 11-4 favourite).
His trainer Nicky Henderson had described stablemate Chantry House as a ‘must win’ in the Grade 2 Paddy Power Cotswold Chase — and the eight-year-old delivered to give JP McManus his 4,000th winner as an owner.
The two-and-ahalf-length margin from
former stablemate Santini earned Chantry House, who was running in cheekpieces for the first time, a place in the Cheltenham Gold Cup on March 18, and Henderson said: “There are plenty of positives to take from that.”
Pied Piper sauntered to success in the JCB Triumph Hurdle Trial Juvenile Hurdle and is now the 9-4 market leader for the Triumph Hurdle on the Gold Cup undercard. But his handler Gordon Elliott, who also trains second favourite Fil D’Or, warned: “We could split them up. If one went for the Supreme [Novices’ Hurdle] it would be this lad.”