Champ v Paisley Park: Round 5 in the rescheduled Long Walk Hurdle at Kempton

Before the battles

In many ways, it’s an unsurprising rivalry. Both horses are solid top-level 160+ performers and both are 10-years-old. They have been trained 13 miles apart their whole careers. Both are at their best over three miles. Perhaps the only surprise is that it’s only round five.

Yet in other ways, you would never have called it. The Champ vs Paisley Park mini-series.

You couldn’t have called it at the 2020 Cheltenham Festival. Champ won the RSA Chase (now Brown Advisory) on his 13th start in incredible fashion, trading at 400 on the Betfair Exchange in-running.

A day later Paisley Park was well beaten when sent off the 4/6 favourite for the Stayers’ Hurdle, where he was going for an eighth successive victory on what was also his 13th career run. The pair’s paths had never even looked like crossing.

Champ was 14/1 for the following year’s Gold Cup, the Paisley Park team were left licking their wounds. Rollercoaster seasons for both followed in the next campaign, but still they weren’t to meet.

Nicky Henderson’s horse had a setback and a hobday operation and reappeared in the Game Spirit Chase, 347 days after his RSA win, over two miles at Newbury. It was an unusual Gold Cup prep, but he ran a cracker in second to Sceau Royal. He fluffed his lines when pulled up in the big one, though, disappointing backers who sent him off 13/2.

A day before Champ’s Gold Cup flop, Emma Lavelle’s Paisley Park was third in the Stayers’ Hurdle. He was beaten favourite again, but he ran well in third and had already bounced back at the top level earlier that season when landing the Long Walk at Ascot, also in unlikely style. He wasn’t quite 400 on Betfair – he traded at a high of 65 – but this was still victory from the jaws of defeat stuff.

With both horses having a penchant for the extraordinary it’s no surprise that their subsequent battles have been high-octane affairs...

Round 1 – Dec 18 2021 - Grade 1 Long Walk Hurdle, Ascot

• 1st Champ
• 3rd Paisley Park
• Watch the free video replay here…

The first meeting between Champ and Paisley Park came in last year’s Long Walk Hurdle at Ascot. Paisley was working his way back to form after being pulled up at Aintree in April, with two third places at Wetherby and Newbury giving him something to work on.

He rocked up at Ascot for his 20th career start, while Champ was having his 16th. He hadn’t been seen since his Gold Cup no-show, with Henderson reverting to hurdles with him in a bid to freshen him up – Jonjo O’Neill Jr also taking the ride for the first time with that in mind.

Neither were sent off favourite, with Aintree Stayers’ Hurdle winner Thyme Hill the shortest in the betting at 5/2. Champ was 4/1 and Paisley 11/2, but it was the former who cruised through the contest under a confident O’Neill Jr, oozing class, with Paisley Park only third despite late headway.

1-0 Champ in the burgeoning head-to-head and he was cut to 5/1 for the Stayers’ at Cheltenham.

Round 2 – Jan 29 2022 - Grade 2 Cleeve Hurdle, Cheltenham

• 1st Paisley Park
• 2nd Champ
• Watch the free video replay here…

Both Paisley Park and Champ made their racecourse debuts in the January of 2017 and, although it took them the best part of five years to meet on the track for the first time, we only had to wait just over a month for their second head-to-head.

Five years after their bumper debuts they lined up together for the Cleeve Hurdle on trials day – at least they would’ve done had Paisley Park not whipped around and lost 12 lengths at the start.

This time he traded at 48 in-running, but he went from the ridiculous to the sublime, staying on strongly up the hill to overhaul Champ and beat him by over three lengths following an scarcely believable performance.

Round 3 – Mar 17 2022 – Grade 1 Stayers’ Hurdle, Cheltenham

• 3rd Paisley Park
• 4th Champ
• Watch the free video replay here…

After Champ’s Long Walk stroll and Paisley Park’s incredible Cleeve Hurdle renaissance the pair were sent off 11/2 and 17/2 respectively for the Stayers' Hurdle at the Cheltenham Festival, with three Irish-trained horses as short as or shorter than Champ’s odds for the Grade 1 prize.

Alas, one of those, the previous year’s winner, Flooring Porter, a 4/1 shot this time, thwarted both, with another from-the-front effort under Danny Mullins.

Paisley Park did a Paisley Park, staying on well at the business end for a never-nearer third, while Champ did a Champ, travelling with zest before flattering to deceive a little in fourth.

Round 4 – Nov 25 2022 – Grade 2 Long Distance Hurdle, Newbury

• 1st Champ
• 2nd Paisley Park
• Watch the free video replay here…

With both horses now 10 turning 11 there was a degree of uncertainty heading into the Long Distance Hurdle at Newbury with both Champ and Paisley Park making their seasonal reappearances.

As it turned out they ran to form, having the race between themselves, and they followed the template that had been set in the previous three head-to-heads.

Champ travelled well on the front end, and was clearly going well fresh just as he had done in the Long Walk the season before. Paisley Park kept in touch, though, was two lengths down at the last, and finished with a rattle, as he does, to reduce the deficit to just a neck at the line in a belter.

Round 5 – December 26 2022 – Grade 1 Long Walk Hurdle, Kempton

• Champ??
• Paisley Park??

And so the series rolls on to Kempton on Boxing Day, the top-class race having been salvaged from Ascot's abandoned meeting, where these old rivals are due to meet for the fifth time in the 2022 Long Walk Hurdle.

Paisley Park has two Long Walks on his C.V, while the reigning champ, Champ, has one. Henderson’s horse has the slightest of edges on their Newbury form, but could Paisley Park come on for the run and overhaul the JP McManus horse second time out?

Champ will travel with verve. Paisley Park will stay on strongly after the last. At least that’s what the recent history between these two suggests will happen. But, like with all sagas, we’ll all have to tune in for a potential plot twist. It promises to be another thriller.

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