Aidan Coleman’s celebrates Stayers’ Hurdle success on Andrew Gemmell’s Paisley Park
Hurdle hero Paisley Park. Following Frodon and Bryony Frost’s heroics in the previous race, Cheltenham was already abuzz and after Paisley Park delivered a second feelgood result in the space of an hour, everyone wanted a slice of the winning owner. He recalls: “It was something I’ve dreamt of all my life and for it to have happened was phenomenal. Everyone wanted to talk from the press to members of the crowd. “I do think about it a lot and relive it many times in my head because it was phenomenal. It’s amazing too how many people have come up to me since to say how much it meant to them to be there when something special like Frodon and Paisley Park happened.” Gemmell was certainly in a minority at the start of Festival week as the owner of a market leader for one of the championship races and, while excited to find out if Paisley Park was the ‘banker’ most were predicting, it came with a considerable amount of pressure. “The day itself from start to finish was a rollercoaster and a completely different experience,” he says. “To win a first Grade 1 in the Long Walk was great but it really caught fire after the Cleeve and the build-up, with all the interviews and press attention, was enormous. “As the days went by and it became closer, the tension mounted – I’ve never felt anything quite like that before. It’s definitely a different feeling when you’ve got your own horse running, but on this occasion it was heightened even more because there was a sense of expectancy.” L IKE the majority of regulars, Gemmell knows what he likes when it comes to the second week in March and, as has been the routine in recent years, he made his base for the week with friends around 30 miles east of the racecourse in the historic market town of Witney. “For the last couple of years three or four of us have been staying in Witney and travelling back and forwards every day,” he says. “I remember not sleeping very well the night before and was basically forced by my mates to have breakfast, because I didn’t want anything.” His perception that Stayers’ Hurdle day was going to be like nothing he had previously experienced on a racecourse was only heightened when he arrived at the track, with well-wishers keen to chat along with TV and radio stations. “We got to the course a bit earlier than usual because we wanted to take it all in a bit,” remembers Gemmell, who used to work in local government at Westminster Council. “You could tell in all the coverage beforehand that everyone was rooting for us and you could
March 2020 The Festival 25
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