PAISLEY Park could race again this season after receiving a clean bill of health.
The eight-year-old was a beaten favourite in the Paddy Power Stayers’ Hurdle at last week’s Cheltenham Festival, with the race eventually won by 50-1 shot Lisnagar Oscar.
But he was found to have an irregular heartbeat in a post-race veterinary assessment, prompting connections to send him for scans at Rossdales Equine Hospital in Newmarket.
And Lavelle revealed that the results were encouraging and that the horse could yet head to Punchestown later this spring.
She said: “I actually haven’t heard anything so far today, but I got a call from Newmarket late yesterday afternoon to tell me he’d had the scans on his heart and everything looked good.
“They tell me he has an enormous heart, although I’m not sure we actually needed a scan to know that!
“He had an ECG on overnight. Subject to everything being OK with that, he will then be allowed to come home.”
Lavelle’s plan was always for Paisley Park to end his campaign at the Punchestown Festival.
And he could yet do so, subject to the meeting going ahead in light of the current Coronavirus outbreak.
All racing in Ireland is currently taking place behind closed doors.
She continued:”Let’s see what happens over the next week or two. Obviously there is a lot more going on than just what has happened with Paisley Park.
“Once we’ve got him home, we can start working him again, and he can wear a monitor with a chip – which will then send the data back to Newmarket and we can be sure everything is as it should be.
“If he seems well, he’s working well and racing is still going ahead, then we will definitely still consider Punchestown – but there’s a much bigger picture at the moment.”
