Change of approach for Paisley Park

Trainer Emma Lavelle says there’s likely to be a change to how Paisley Park runs when he makes his return at the Grand National meeting.

The nine-year-old heads to Aintree, where he is likely to run in the Liverpool Hurdle, off the back of a disappointing third-place finish in the Stayers’ Hurdle at the Cheltenham Festival.

That’s now back-to-back Festival disappointments for Lavelle’s star charge since he won the 2019 Stayers’ but the Marlborough handler feels it could have been a different story this time if they’d modified their approach.

Having raced towards the back of the field for much of this year’s Stayers’, the Andrew Gemmell-owned runner couldn’t reel in winner Flooring Porter heading up the hill as he finished a length and three-quarters away.

Lavelle says she wants Paisley Park to be raced further towards the front when he does run at Aintree and hopes that could bring about a change in fortunes.

“The plan at this stage is to head to Aintree. Thyme Hill will be back there and I’m sure it will be a good race, while Andrew will also be able to be there,” she told Racing TV.

“It will be interesting to see how he gets on back at Aintree as he has not got the Cheltenham hill. He won as a young horse around there over two and a half miles and it will be interesting to see how he goes.

“He will definitely have to be ridden a bit more prominently early on so if he hits that flat spot he is not too far back and doesn’t have lots of ground to make up.”