THE focus this week is on the Stayers’ Hurdle after a weekend of change at the top of the markets following Gowran and Cheltenham trials.

Some opinions run down the race with no obvious standout contender but what a change it is from the Champion Hurdle, Champion Chase and Ryanair to have such a wide open Grade 1. It could shape a race to pull one from the hat and wave it afterwards saying, how great am I to find a double figure winner.

With Grade 1s you know all the form and the different strands of it. It’s not like a handicap, keeping a bit up your sleeve. The best horse wins, right? So who is the best horse?

The handicappers decided at the end of last season that the Cheltenham and Punchestown form was equal. “Honours were shared in the staying division between Stayers’ Hurdle winner Flooring Porter and impressive Punchestown scorer Klassical Dream (both 164), and hot on their heels were the leading British stayers Paisley Park (163) and Thyme Hill (162) who served up a cracking finish to the Long Walk Hurdle,” Andrew Mealor, of the BHA said in the Anglo Irish Classifications.

So there’s nothing in it that an ‘off’ day wouldn’t turn around. All the leading contenders have a touch of the unpredictable about them.

Paisley Park has had his off days in the recent past but there was much to like about his Cheltenham win at the weekend. The main thing being that, despite the whip around at the start, he looked like the old Paisley.

If Emma Lavelle’s charge was reluctant, that can’t be said of the big Irish hopes Klassical Dream and Flooring Porter. It’s round three and two nil to Klassical, after Flooring Porter was inconvenienced at the start on both their meetings. I think Klassical Dream is the better horse but more unpredictable. He throws in a dodgy jump too. Flooring Porter also needs to lead so something gives.

Paisley Park will be finishing strongly, to be pulled into the race by a strong pace but you have to go way back to Crimson Embers, who regained the title as an 11-year-old for a double figure age winner.

It was a heart condition that hindered him in 2020 and he seemed in much better heart, pricking his ears in customary fashion up the run-in. At best odds 7/1, it’s easy to see him in the first three.

There appeared no excuse for Champ at the weekend. He took the Long Walk by a length and three-quarters from Thyme Hill who had been pipped in the race the previous year by Paisley Park. He also has to get over that bad run last year. Thyme Hill got his Grade 1 at Aintree but only after a battle with Roksana and she would be around 10/1 for this. It’s easy to see him involved but more difficult to see him first past the post. Like every other Grade 1 at the Festival, recent years have seen younger horses to the fore. Six-, seven- and eight-year-olds have dominated. And five of the last seven have been double-figure odds.

Sporting John is a Grade 1 novice chase winner but his Warwick Pertemps Network Handicap Hurdle didn’t shout Grade 1 winner.

The intrigue comes from the two chasers, Melon and Asterion Forlonge. The latter goes on Gold Cup trial today. At 10s NRNB there’s no risk. Melon might drop back to hurdles. He is generally 16s NRNB but 20s with Boyles, or 33s if you want to chance without it. There doesn’t appear to be another race for him after four Grade 1 placings at the Festival so it might be worth a shout too.

New arrivals are few with the better horses from the 2021 Albert Bartlett gone chasing. The most interesting is Royal Kahala, who put up a decent performance at Gowran. But surely the shorter distance and lesser competition of the Grade 1 Mares’ Hurdle pulls her there.

Gentlemansgame was my long-shot but ran poorly at Gowran. His rating of 141 is more likely to see him in the handicaps. Darver Star has to prove he stays or is this class over the longer distance. Sire Du Berlais and Thomas Darby are old regulars and difficult to see winning now. So it might just be worth sticking with the old champ Paisley.