STAYING star Paisley Park will look to bounce back to winning-ways at Aintree’s Grand National meeting.
Emma Lavelle’s horse was one of many high-profile Brits who suffered defeat at the hands of the Irish at Cheltenham.
After hitting his notorious flat spot, Paisley Park could only finish third to Flooring Porter in the Stayers’ Hurdle.
Lavelle said: “The plan at this stage is to head to Aintree. Thyme Hill will be back there and I’m sure it will be a good race.
“He has not got the Cheltenham hill but he won as a young horse around there over two-and-a-half-miles and it will be interesting to see how he goes.
“He will definitely have to be ridden a bit more prominently early on so if he hits that flat spot he is not too far back and doesn’t have lots of ground to make up.”
Paisley Park’s usual prep was cancelled when the Cleeve Hurdle was abandoned and Lavelle thinks it cost the horse.
She added: “If I had my time again I think on the back of missing the Cleeve, I would probably give him a run, just to give him that sharpness because we had a lot of ground to make up.
“I think these races are all about margins and in this instance he probably just lacked that bit of sharpness he needed.”
Goshen only beat two horses home in this year’s Champion Hurdle
Meanwhile Gary Moore has pencilled in Sandown’s season-closing meeting or a possible trip to Punchestown for Champion Hurdle flop Goshen.
