Paddy Power Stayers’ Hurdle (Grade 1)

AS Teahupoo powered up the hill for Jack Kennedy in the Paddy Power Stayers’ Hurdle, Gordon Elliott puffed out his cheeks, clenched his first, and mini-punched the air. It was more relief than immediate elation, but the satisfaction was there.

Elliott had been hitting the bar all week and admitted to “getting a bit twitchy” at stages, but Teahupoo delivered in spades, rewarding a long-term plan of patience to go one better than his unlucky second here last year.

Extremely strong in the market and sent off 5/4, the Robcour-owned seven-year-old always travelled well for Kennedy, with the only real blip coming at the second last, which he bunny hopped and lost only a small amount of ground.

He was the first one to get to Flooring Porter, who had made a typically bold bid from the front, but had no answer once headed. Indeed, Teahupoo was impressive on the run-in, pulling further away from Gavin Cromwell’s horse, with Home By The Lee next and Buddy One putting up an excellent performance in fourth for Paul and Jack Gilligan.

This was a second success of the week for Robcour, who have had an excellent year and provided vindication for the decision to forgo all mid-season targets to come here fresh.

They had solid reasoning to take that ploy. Teahupoo had a perfect record of six wins from six starts off breaks of 53 days or more and there is no doubt he was on his A-game here.

Anxious

“I was a bit anxious at the top of the hill when he missed the second last,” Elliott said. “Then we probably got there a bit soon because Jack had to give him a squeeze, but I’m always confident in Jack, he’s a world-class jockey. This is brilliant, I’m delighted for the whole team and delighted for the horse, myself and Jack.

“We said we’d come here fresh. After Fairyhouse I made that statement and then I thought maybe I should be running him again, but look, there’s a couple of nice races for him now, he could go to Aintree, Punchestown and we might even look at France. The Stayers’ Hurdle is the Stayers’ Hurdle and this was the plan.”

Asked about his week on a whole, Elliott said: “Look, I’ve been here before. I know how hard it is, but you’ve just gotta take it on the chin again and come out again. I was getting a bit twitchy. It’s great to get off the mark.

“The horses have been running great, we’ve been hitting the crossbar, but there have been no hard luck stories. Willie is an amazing man, Dan Skelton is having a great week and I’m delighted for him.”

It was a 38th Festival win for Elliott and an 11th for Jack Kennedy, who said: “He’s an amazing horse; he makes my job very easy. You can put him wherever you want in a race and he jumps great. We missed the second last, but other than that it was all straightforward. He’s an honest horse and he came up the hill very well.”

After the race it was announced that the 2019 winner Paisley Park had been retired. The popular stayer had 11 wins to his name, four at the top level.

“It’s the right thing to do,” said his trainer Emma Lavelle.

“I’ve had so much pride in Paisley. He’s taken us on a journey from beginning to end, both at home and on the racecourse, and he’s been so special. He ran a lovely race again today, but the turbo is no longer working in the way it used to.”