Ascot’s Long Walk Hurdle: Champ set to take on Paisley Park again in Saturday’s feature | Racing News
Champ and Paisley Park are set to renew their rivalry in Ascot’s Howden Long Walk Hurdle on Saturday, live on Sky Sports Racing.
The pair have dominated the 3m 0.5f Grade One contest in recent years, winning four of the last five runnings, with Paisley Park claiming his third victory in the race last year when it was staged at Kempton on Boxing Day after Ascot was abandoned before Christmas.
The Nicky Henderson-trained Champ finished third last year after winning the race in 2021 when his fellow 11-year-old Paisley Park, who also triumphed for Emma Lavelle in 2018 and 2020, was third.
Paisley Park goes clear of Goshen at Kempton to win the Long Walk Hurdle for a third time last year
The pair have crossed paths five times in all previously, with the score standing at 3-2 to Paisley Park in their head-to-head record.
Champ was last seen finishing a well-held fifth behind Sire Du Berlais at Aintree in the spring but is reported to be in good heart ahead of his belated return to the track.
“He’s a great old horse, Nicky is happy with him and the plan is, all being well, to go there,” said owner JP McManus’ racing manager Frank Berry.
“He runs well fresh so you would hope he would run well. He enjoys Ascot and has run some good races around there and Nicky is happy with him at the minute.”
Last year’s runner-up Goshen is also among the remaining 10 entries at the five-day stage, with the ante-post betting headed by Champ ahead of Crambo, who leads the younger brigade after finishing third behind Slate Lane at Haydock for Fergal O’Brien last time out.
Dan Skelton’s West Balboa, an impressive winner at Aintree on his first outing of the campaign, and Jeremy Scott’s stable star Dashel Drasher, who edged out Paisley Park in Newbury’s Long Distance Hurdle at the start of the month, are also still entered, along with Paul Nicholls’ Blueking D’Oroux, who won the Coral Hurdle over half a mile shorter at Ascot last time.
Blueking D’Oroux on his way to victory in the Coral Hurdle at Ascot
As well as Goshen, Gary Moore could run Botox Has, the winner of the bet365 Hurdle at Wetherby last month, while Red Risk may also represent Nicholls, with Nigel Twiston-Davies’ Gowel Road the other possible runner.
Watch all the action from the Christmas Racing Weekend at Ascot on Friday and Saturday live on Sky Sports Racing, with the Long Walk Hurdle due off at 2.25pm on Saturday.
