Paisley Park went odds-on with most firms for a second Stayers Hurdle success after winning on Trials Day here with a performance that suggests he is even better than he was a year ago. The horse, who has taken his owner, trainer and jockey to unexpected heights, cruised through the Cleeve Hurdle and there was no hint of the flat spot that he was regularly hitting towards the end of his races last season.
“He’s matured,” declared Andrew Gemmell, as he waited to welcome his horse back to the winner’s enclosure. “I think I’ve got to try and mature and not get so excited.” It would be a pity if that happened, as the owner’s delight in Paisley Park has helped to popularise the horse, but fortunately there is no real prospect of the 67-year-old moderating his enthusiasm for the game.
“He’s getting better,” mused Emma Lavelle, who trains Paisley Park at her newish base near Marlborough. “I think I love him.”
Trial races can be trappy for hot favourites and the pitfall here lay in the easy lead that Summerville Boy was allowed, bearing in mind that he won the Supreme at the Festival two years ago. When he kicked approaching the home turn, Aidan Coleman got lower in Paisley Park’s saddle and sent out signals that, if not quite amounting to panic, were certainly urgent.
But the horse responded so well that the victory was all but sealed by the final flight only 100 yards later. Coleman said he was never worried but took his hat off to Jonny Burke for a cunning ride on the runner-up. “I thought he was brilliant. He slowed it up when I thought he would have went on.”
Lavelle evidently feels the weight of twin pressures with Paisley Park, who is not just the most talented horse in her yard but a sporting star with an ever-increasing number of admirers. She is grateful he does not put her through so much of an emotional rollercoaster in his races as in the past, when he would do a fair impression of a struggling outsider before finding extra gears.
“He’s not a slow horse,” she said. “He’s a stayer but he’s got pace. I enjoyed that. You just feel that, if something comes to him, it’s gonna make him go quicker.”
Importantly, Paisley Park may well have done enough to deter connections of Benie Des Dieux from taking him on here in March. If she were committed instead to the Mares Hurdle, the Stayers second-favourite would be Summerville Boy, the horse Paisley Park has just beaten.
Earlier Santini put his name in the Gold Cup argument by beating Bristol De Mai in the Cotswold Chase. It is 20 years since the winner of this went on to greater glory in March and Santini’s jumping was scruffy at times. How much credit should he be given for beating a horse who has famously yet to win at Cheltenham?
But the first two pulled 30 lengths clear of Top Ville Ben and De Rasher Counter, a talented pair, and Nicky Henderson reckons Santini can do better again on a drier surface. In an open year the winner will be worth his place in the Gold Cup but odds of 7-1 make little appeal at this stage.
Henderson was also on the mark at Doncaster, where his OK Corral rallied close home to win the Great Yorkshire. It appeared he responded well to some improvising by his jockey, Derek O’Connor, who dropped his whip and used the palm of his hand instead. The stewards pointed out that this is actually forbidden under the rules but took no action when the jockey said he had made contact with only the saddle pad rather than OK Corral’s skin.
Sedgefield 1.00 Cedar Hill (nap) 1.30 Manofthemoment 2.00 Desaray Girl 2.30 The King Of May 3.00 Ulterior Motives 3.30 Ask Paddy 4.00 Dollar And A Dream (nb)
Fontwell 1.20 Jimmy 1.50 Good News 2.20 Beaufort West 2.50 Sky Full
Of Stars 3.20 Itsonlyrockandroll 3.50 Soarlikeaneagle 4.20 Kaymar
