IT was some buzz last year. Paisley Park, favourite for the Stayers’ Hurdle, going there and winning.

There was that flat spot – there’s often that flat spot with Paisley Park – when they quickened and it took him a few strides. He was only eighth or ninth as they raced to the home turn. But you knew that he would find lots. He always does. That was part of the buzz.

He went bravely between horses on the run around the home turn and moved to the near side when they straightened up. He was still only fifth or sixth then, but you know Paisley Park. You know how strong he is. Aidan Coleman asked him for his effort, and his turbo kicked in. He was in front long before he got to the final flight.

He wasn’t great at the obstacle, he didn’t meet it on a stride and he kicked the top of it. That gave Sam Spinner a bit of a chance, but you knew that Paisley Park had plenty of energy left. He had been up that hill before, and he ran away from his rivals again as the partisan crowd roared him home.

“Cheltenham is special,” says Gerry Hogan. “It’s great for your business. Of course. It’s great to have a Cheltenham Festival winner. But it’s also great for the buzz.”

Hogan liked Paisley Park from the first time he saw him at Richard Rohan’s, before the 2015 Land Rover Sale.

“I liked everything about him,” he recalls. “He had a smashing head. He had great shape and conformation. By Oscar out of a Presenting mare, and he was handsome. He was easy to like. I remember telling Emma and Barry about this horse of Richard Rohan’s, who was consigned by Ballincurrig House.”

Emma and Barry are Emma Lavelle and Barry Fenton. So you know how this story goes.

“We didn’t know what he would make. He could have made 40 grand, or 80 grand, or a hundred grand. It’s difficult to tell. But I liked him and Emma and Barry liked him, and 60 grand was a fair price we thought.”

Paisley Park was a little backward, it took him a little while, but Emma Lavelle was patient with him, allowed him come in his own time. He made his racecourse debut in a bumper at Warwick in January 2017 and, racing in the Andrew Gemmell colours that are now synonymous with the reigning staying hurdling king, he ran well to finish second, beaten just a length.

Progressed

He didn’t race again until the following December, 11 months later, when he went to Hereford and won a maiden hurdle. He progressed from that, finished second in the Grade 2 Leamington Hurdle at Warwick, finished second again at Doncaster in February, then went to the Cheltenham Festival for the Albert Bartlett Hurdle. It never really happened for him at Cheltenham, he lost a shoe and finished down the field.

That was Cheltenham 2018. Big contrast with Cheltenham 2019.

They re-grouped.

“His work at the start of last season was fine,” says Hogan. “We knew that he was a good horse, that maybe he could be a Grade 3 or a Grade 2 horse. You couldn’t have thought that he would become the horse that he has become.”

Paisley Park won a handicap hurdle at Aintree on his debut last season, then went to Haydock and won the Grade 3 Betfair Exchange Handicap Hurdle. After that, the Grade 1 Long Walk Hurdle at Ascot was his target, and his owner Andrew Gemmell counted the days to the Stayers’ Hurdle.

“All of a sudden, the horse started to get better. He improved from Aintree to Haydock, and he improved again from Haydock to Ascot.”

He won the Long Walk Hurdle, thereby providing Emma Lavelle with the first Grade 1 win of her training career.

It was through Barry Fenton that Gerry Hogan got to know Emma Lavelle.

“Barry and I go way back. We were knocking around together for a long time. I was best man at Barry and Emma’s wedding. Then I started buying a few horses for them.”

Court In Motion was one of the early ones, bought by Hogan for €50,000 at the Goffs Land Rover Sale. Court In Motion won Grade 2 races over hurdles and fences, he finished second behind Dynaste in the Grade 2 Berkshire Chase and he finished third behind Bobs Worth in the Albert Bartlett Hurdle.

Pause And Clause was another, winner of the Martin Pipe Hurdle at the 2010 Cheltenham Festival. De Rasher Counter was another.

“De Rasher Counter was probably looking a little exposed when we got him,” says Hogan. “But I knew the horse well. He had what looked like a chequered career but, in reality, it wasn’t his fault.”

Trained by Tom Keating as a point-to-pointer, De Rasher Counter fell a couple of times when he was travelling well, before getting off the mark at Borris House in February 2017. Winner of his bumper at Clonmel for Liz Lalor the following month, he went to the Goffs UK horses-in-training sale at Aintree in April that year, and Hogan picked him up for £50,000.

Slow burn

De Rasher Counter has been a slow burn too. He won just one of his seven races over hurdles two seasons ago, and he didn’t get off the mark over fences last season until his fourth attempt. He lost his confidence when he was hampered by a loose horse at Hereford in November, but, confidence restored by his trainer and by rider Adam Wedge, he won a novices’ handicap chase at Newbury just after Christmas. Hogan was thinking Cheltenham after that, Kim Muir Chase, but the trainer had different ideas.

“I thought that he would be an ideal horse for the Kim Muir,” says Hogan. “I thought that the race would suit him, and I had Rob James lined up to ride him. But Emma said that Cheltenham would be too much for him at that stage of his career. She wanted to aim a little lower.”

Instead of going to Cheltenham, Emma Lavelle took De Rasher Counter to Uttoxeter on Midlands National day last year, on the Saturday after the Cheltenham Festival, and he stayed on well to land a valuable three-mile novices’ handicap chase.

“Emma and Barry have done a fantastic job with De Rasher Counter,” says Hogan. “They have brought him along gradually, and allowed him grow into the horse that he has become.”

De Rasher Counter started off this season in a handicap hurdle back at Uttoxeter. Then he went to Newbury and, ridden by claiming rider Ben Jones, won the Ladbrokes Trophy.

Gerry Hogan was in the twilight of his riding career when a new career as a bloodstock agent started to dawn. He had good contacts in Ireland and in Britain, built up over seven years when he was riding there.

“When I was in Ireland, during spells on the sidelines from injury, I started to see a few horses, and I started recommending them to people in Britain. The horses did okay, so it just gathered momentum. Lots of people were very good to me then. I became friendly with David Nicholson, who was great to me. And Timmy Murphy, who introduced me to David Johnson.”

The second horse that Hogan bought for David Johnson was Great Endeavour, who won his first three races over hurdles, and won two big races over fences at Cheltenham, the Paddy Power Gold Cup, the feature race at the November meeting, and the Byrne Group Plate at the Cheltenham Festival.

“People in Ireland were very good to me too. People like Paul Nolan, and Ted Walsh, who introduced me to Barry Connell.”

Hogan bought Foxrock, who was trained by Ted Walsh for Barry Connell to win the Leopardstown Chase and to finish second in the Irish Gold Cup, beaten just three parts of a length by Carlingford Lough, and he was a prolific hunter chaser, winning four on the bounce under Katie Walsh.

Hogan also bought Mount Benbulben for Barry Connell, and Mount Benbulben was trained by Gordon Elliott to win the Grade 2 Monksfield Novice Hurdle at Navan, and the Grade 1 Growise Novice Chase at the 2013 Punchestown Festival. And he bought The Liquidator.

Not cheap

“It just shows you,” muses Hogan. “Horses. Mount Benbulben wasn’t a cheap horse. He cost £250,000, so it was great that he went on to be a Grade 1 winner. But the day before he won the Growise Chase at the Punchestown Festival, The Liquidator had won the Grade 1 bumper, and The Liquidator cost just £2,500.”

His eye for a winner saw Hogan join the selection team at Goffs in 2006. February and March each year is spent on the road visiting breeders, primarily in Cork and Tipperary, and inspecting up to 300 National Hunt store horses, their owners all hopeful of a place in the Land Rover Sale catalogue at Goffs in June.

Gerry Hogan will be going to Cheltenham this year of course, not just in his capacity as a Goffs agent, but also in has capacity as a bloodstock agent with a vested interest. And as a fan.

“It’s great to be involved at the Cheltenham Festival, and it’s unbelievable to have a winner there. Last year we went there with 15 runners, and it was brilliant that Paisley Park won the Stayers’ Hurdle.”

There have been highs and lows at Cheltenham. In 2018, Gerry Hogan had no Cheltenham Festival winner. In 2017, he had Tully East, bought by him for €40,000 at the 2013 Land Rover Sale for Barry Connell, and trained by Alan Fleming to win the Close Brothers Chase under Denis O’Regan. That was a great day. In 2016, there was Any Currency, first past the post in the Cross-Country Chase, but subsequently disqualified. Talk about highs and lows.

“Hopefully Paisley Park will go there with a big chance again this year. He was brilliant last year, and Emma and Barry seem to be very happy with him again this time around.”

Strange the way life works out. If Paisley Park hadn’t improved like he improved last season over hurdles, if he hadn’t won the Stayers’ Hurdle and proven himself to be the outstanding staying hurdler around, he could have embarked on a novice chasing career this term.

“He could have been a hurdler, and he could have been a chaser,” says Hogan. “He could have been either. He jumps so well. If he hadn’t done what he did last year, he could have been jumping fences by now. I don’t get involved in training them though of course. If I’m asked for my opinion, I’ll give it, but the training is obviously all down to Emma and Barry, and they have been brilliant with him.”

De Rasher Counter could be an interesting string to Gerry Hogan’s Cheltenham Festival bow this season. Another Goffs graduate, at the time of writing he is the Ladbrokes Trophy winner, the Hennessy Gold Cup winner in old money, and a handicap rating of 158 suggests that he is not too far off some of the top staying chasers.

He has the potential to progress too. He has only just turned eight and he has raced just seven times over fences.

“You never know,” says Hogan. “He has to improve again to get himself in among the top chasers, but he could improve again.”

The countdown has started all right. There’s the anticipation that goes with it, the hoping, the dreaming. All part of the buzz.