Paisley Park: Classy over hurdles, but would he be as good over fences?

Paisley Park: More Gift or Thistle? Ben Linfoot on Emma Lavelle's dilemma

By Ben Linfoot

Horse Racing

Thu October 28, 2021 · 4y ago

Ben Linfoot looks at the staying hurdlers and older horses that made a switch to chasing late in their careers as Emma Lavelle wrestles with a Paisley Park dilemma.

On October 28 2006, Iris’s Gift made his seasonal reappearance in the Charlie Hall Chase at Wetherby. It was a stellar renewal. Our Vic eased home from the future Grand National winner Neptune Collonges, with Sir Rembrandt, twice placed in the Gold Cup, third, and Kingscliff, the inaugural winner of the Grade One Betfair Chase the previous season, fourth.

Iris’s Gift was only fifth but he ran well, jumping better than he had done at the backend of his novice-chasing season, where he fell in a Warwick novices’ chase before he was pulled up in War Of Attrition’s Gold Cup.

Jonjo O’Neill took aim at the moon with Iris’s Gift in 2006. He was nine and time wasn’t on his side, but he had the platform of a superlative career in staying hurdles from which to launch from. He had eight wins from 11 goes over hurdles, including in the Stayers’ at Cheltenham and the Long Distance Hurdle at Aintree, while he was second the other three times he ran.

Unfortunately Iris’s Gift only ran once more after Wetherby, in the second renewal of the Betfair Chase. He was tailed off, as a certain Kauto Star announced himself on the big stage. Things didn’t work out for Iris’s Gift over fences, but he was a brilliant hurdler and will forever be remembered for sinking Baracouda in a vintage Stayers’ Hurdle in 2004.

Iris's Gift was a classy staying hurdler who went chasing

On October 30 2021, at Wetherby, it could be a pivotal day in the career of another brilliant hurdler, Paisley Park. He’s scheduled to run in the bet365 Hurdle – the West Yorkshire Hurdle if there was any doubt – and he’s on another retrieval mission after he was pulled up when he was last seen in the Liverpool Hurdle at Aintree back in April.

Trainer Emma Lavelle will want some rain at Wetherby for him to run, but she has publicly announced the dilemma that is currently swimming through her head – after this weekend does he stay over hurdles or embark on a novice chasing campaign?

Paisley Park over fences. It’s an exciting prospect, no doubt. Rated 169 over hurdles at his peak, if he could transfer that ability over the bigger obstacles all sorts of big prizes come into play. And in his novice season, especially, you’d think he’d have every chance of adding to his three Grade Ones over hurdles if he takes to jumping fences well.

On a recent schooling session over fences Lavelle said of Paisley Park: “We thought if he was good it might open up a few ideas. He was so quick through the air, we couldn’t be happier with him. As things stand I envisage him staying over hurdles if he brings what he is showing at home to the races. What is exciting is that we have novice chasing if we need it.”

Paisley Park: should come on for his reappearance at Wetherby

It's possible Paisley Park could go chasing

Recent examples of top-class staying hurdlers going chasing aren’t confined to Iris’s Gift. Just before the turn of the century Jenny Pitman’s Princeful – twice a Grade One winner over hurdles – tried his luck over fences but in his sole chasing outing he had none, as he was brought down at Doncaster in a race won by subsequent Royal & SunAlliance Chase and Gold Cup winner Looks Like Trouble.

More recently there has been More Of That, again for Jonjo O’Neill. Like Iris’s Gift over hurdles, More Of That racked up a fine record, winning five from six over timber, including the Stayers’, before a defeat in the Long Distance Hurdle at Newbury proved the catalyst for a switch to chasing. He won his first two novice chases, but then failed to trouble the judge in 10 subsequent outings.

Cole Harden was another Stayers’ Hurdle winner that went chasing without success. He was only seven on his first go over fences, a defeat at Wetherby, and he suffered two more steeplechasing losses a year later before being retired due to injury. His Stayers’ Hurdle win came at the expense of Saphir Du Rheu, a chaser-turned-hurdler in the Big Buck’s mould.

Big Buck’s, of course, did it in reverse. He had seven goes over fences before Paul Nicholls’ inspired decision to revert to hurdling which yielded 10 Grade Ones. Lisnagar Oscar did a similar thing on a much smaller scale, having had two runs over fences before his shock Stayers’ Hurdle victory in 2020.

It seems there are a lot more examples of top-class staying hurdlers failing over fences than otherwise in recent decades, but then there was Thistlecrack. It’s difficult to argue he was a better chaser than he was hurdler, but to go four from four when he first tackled fences, culminating in King George success as a novice, was certainly a terrific achievement.

Thistlecrack was eight when he went novice chasing. If Paisley Park tackles fences after Wetherby this weekend he’ll be nine-turning-10 which is late, if not unheard of…

Golden oldies

The oldest horse I can find that went novice chasing late in their career this century is CHAPELTOWN for Nicky Henderson. After running in nine bumpers for Bernard Jones in Ireland he was successful in three hurdle races for Henderson as an eight and nine-year-old in 2000 to 2001 before being beset by injury problems.

Undeterred, Henderson brought him back as a 12-year-old in 2004 and, after one spin down the field in a handicap hurdle, he won on his chasing debut at Taunton on April 1. No joke. He ended his career with two more runs over fences that same month, finishing second at Exeter before going out with a bang in victory at Hereford.

He tops the golden oldies when it comes to age, but the below 10 stand out when it comes to 21st century class-act hurdlers trying their hand at chasing late in their careers:

ARCTIC FIRE (10yo in first chase)

We’ll kick-off a top 10 of late-switchers in alphabetical order starting with Arctic Fire. Second in the 2015 Champion Hurdle to stablemate Faugheen, he moved from Willie Mullins’ to Denis Cullen’s and began a chasing career at the age of 10. His best effort over fences from three goes was a 60-length fourth at Clonmel.

BARAFUNDLE (11yo)

Jennie Candlish’s Barafundle hit a high of 140 over hurdles and his career-best run was probably a third off that mark in a Newbury handicap hurdle. Rated 137 for his chasing bow at the age of 11, he made most in a first-time visor in a Uttoxeter novice handicap chase, but he wasn’t to win again in six subsequent starts over fences.

FAUGHEEN (11yo)

The most famous class-act to go chasing late in modern times, the 2015 Champion Hurdler and nine-time Grade One winner over timber had his chasing bow at Punchestown in November 2019 at the grand old age of 11. His brief chasing career wasn’t without drama, but he ended up winning two Grade Ones over fences, and his Flogas Novice Chase win at the Dublin Racing Festival - on just his third steeplechase start at the age of 12 – brought the house down.

GINO TRAIL (9yo)

Some horses are just slow burners and Gino Trail falls into that category. He’d only had two runs under Rules when he made his fencing debut in the January of 2016 at the age of nine and Kerry Lee soon got hold of the highly-strung horse with fragile legs. He won six chases for Lee, though, when thriving in the twilight of his career, before having one last hurrah as a 13-year-old for Fergal O’Brien.

HARCHIBALD (10yo)

Harchibald is so famous for that 2005 Champion Hurdle defeat that I’d completely forgotten he’d tried chasing. He had one go over fences, at the age of 10, when second to Sizing Europe in the Grade 3 Buck House Novice Chase at Punchestown. He had one final career run on the Flat at Dundalk after that, while Sizing Europe went onto win that season’s Arkle and the following year’s Champion Chase.

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HORS LA LOI III (10yo)

Hors La Loi III was a high-class two-mile hurdler who won the 1999 Supreme Novices’ Hurdle by 17 lengths for Martin Pipe and the 2002 Champion Hurdle by three lengths for James Fanshawe. He had another trainer by the time he went novice chasing at the age of 10 – Paul Nicholls – and he won for the Ditcheat handler on his fencing debut at Taunton, on what was to be his final career victory.

INTERSKY FALCON (9yo)

In the year Hors La Loi III refused to race in the Champion Hurdle, Intersky Falcon was fifth to Rooster Booster after setting a manic pace. Such a sight over fences promised much, but he wasn’t seen over the bigger obstacles until the age of nine when he won a Newton Abbot novice chase on his first go with little trouble. However, he was tailed off on his only subsequent career run at Stratford.

LIKE-A-BUTTERFLY (10yo)

Christy Roche’s Like-A-Butterfly won the first eight races of her career, culminating in Supreme Novices’ Hurdle glory at the 2002 Cheltenham Festival where she carried Irish Banker status. Another Grade One followed the next season as she got the better of Limestone Lad in a Leopardstown thriller, before defeats at Cheltenham and Aintree. A long absence followed, but she returned over fences at the age of 10 at Naas, where she won, and she bounced back from high-profile defeats to win top races at Fairyhouse and Aintree in the last two runs of her career.

PINEAU DE RE (9yo)

The 2014 Grand National winner, Pineau De Re, was nine-rising-10 when he made his debut over fences just two years earlier over two miles at Thurles. He was ninth of 16 and it wasn’t until his fifth chasing start when he got his head in front for the first time. Stepping up significantly in trip was the key to him and the late bloomer had his finest hour in Liverpool at the age of 11 - although he was back over hurdles by the time he won another race.

WICKLOW BRAVE (10yo)

Wicklow Brave was an incredible all-rounder. A three-time bumper winner, a Grade One-winning hurdler and a Group One-winning Flat horse, it wasn’t until the May of his 10-year-old year that he had a go at chasing – and he went three from three over fences until being fatally injured in the American Grand National. Brave by name and brave by nature, he was good at everything, including steeplechasing – even if he was late to that particular party.

Emma Lavelle with Paisley Park

It remains to be seen if Paisley Park makes a late switch to fences, never mind if he’s more Thistlecrack than Iris’s Gift. But, as Faugheen showed, a novice campaign over fences at a late stage can reinvigorate a racehorse.

If Lavelle feels that’s the way to go after his seasonal reappearance, he could well add some significant substance – or not - for the leaving-it-late-going-chasing brigade.

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