PAISLEY PARK SLASHED FOR STAYERS’ HURDLE AFTER CLEEVE VICTORY

Festival Fans
January 29, 2022

Paisley Park's odds for the Stayers' Hurdle have been drastically cut after he won his third successive Cleeve Hurdle on Trials Day - in quite remarkable fashion.

The 2019 Stayers' Champion was almost left at the start, losing 15 lengths to the field by half-whipping around.

But eased back into it by Aidan Coleman, he jumped the last alongside odds-on favourite Champ and stormed up the hill to win by three-and-a-quarter-lengths:

Bookmakers reacted by cutting Emma Lavelle's 10-year-old from 33/1 to around 7/1 to regain his crown in March.

And Aidan Coleman, for one, is sure that he cannot not be ruled out:

‘HE GOES TO THE FESTIVAL WITH A PUNCHER’S CHANCE. HE ALWAYS HAS A CHANCE, ESPECIALLY ON THIS TRACK. CHELTENHAM IS HIS TRACK’

Champ, who went into the race as a narrow favourite for the Stayers’ is now out to 6/1 in a market now headed by last year's winner, Flooring Porter, at 7/2.

The other market leaders in a wide open renewal are:

Thyme Hill (5/1): second to Champ in the Long Walk Hurdle at Ascot last month

Klassical Dream (6/1): the original ante-post favourite disappointed in the Galmoy Hurdle at Gowran Park earlier this week

Royal Kahala (8/1): who jumped into the reckoning by winning that Gowran race, having been available at 25/1 beforehand.