CRITICS have remarked that the long-distance hurdles’ championship will not take much winning this season. That may be true but Paisley Park certainly did his chances no harm with an ultimately easy victory in the Grade 2 galliardhomes.com Cleeve Hurdle.

A much-improved seven-year-old, Paisley Park won the Long Walk Hurdle at Ascot, a first Grade 1 success for Emma Lavelle and Aiden Coleman, and won for the fourth time in a row here, again coming between horses in the closing stages but going well clear this time to beat West Approach by a 12 lengths, with Black Op third.

He started at 100/30 favourite and is not much bigger for the Stayers Hurdle, having twice beaten the most obvious contenders, but the price looks short when you take into consideration that the Irish challenge is still to be evaluated.

Also, it was only when Coleman switched him left to pick off tiring rivals that he looked truly convincing.

Understandably, neither trainer nor jockey will be looking at things that way.

“He looked pretty special out there,” Lavelle said. “He’s more professional now and it was important to bring him here to show that his run in the Albert Bartlett (where he finished last) 12 months ago was a complete non-event for him.”