'You can't accept having him without that awe that comes with it' - Paisley Park still the star of the show in new career

We all have our favourites on the track, but it's not always easy to follow what they get up to once their racing days are over. In a new Racing Post series, we catch up with Paisley Park

This time last year popular staying hurdler Paisley Park was denied a record-breaking fourth Cleeve Hurdle by a head.

Andrew Gemmell's pride and joy enjoyed his finest hour in the 2019 Stayers' Hurdle but earned a legion of fans by reappearing in Grade 1 races year-on-year, and bowed out at last year's Cheltenham Festival when finishing down the field. 

He is now settling in at his new yard at Sherborne in Dorset, where he arrived in October, and is taking the first steps on the road to a new life with Emma Lavelle's long-time secretary Katrina Stanhope-White and her two daughters. 

Paisley Park: enjoying his new career in Dorset

"It was important for Andrew to be able to come and visit him, so that access and feeling comfortable around the people was important to him," Stanhope-White said. "I didn't sleep for the first 24 hours because I thought, 'This is an incredibly famous horse'. You can't accept having him without that awe that comes with it. 

"I can't drag him out and hack him out around the village without brushing the straw out of his tail and painting his feet because there's always going to be someone asking after him, and I only turn him out when I'm at home so I can see him out of the window."

Paisley Park is housed alongside 11 polo ponies and, although he was never going to adjust to that discipline, he's enjoying his first experiences hunting. 

Paisley Park meets a new friend

Stanhope-White said: "The first day was very funny because he wasn't very fit and at about 1pm he was watching the hounds and he was falling asleep. He was like, 'Okay, I'm shattered'. He goes straight on the lorry, he's good to clip, he joins in with everything. 

"He gets led around the village and my daughter goes, 'Come on Paisles, keep up!'. He has a few funny moments when he's a bit naughty and he slams on the anchor, but if you say, 'Come on, stop messing around' he'll go, 'All right then'. He wouldn't be for the fainthearted, but he's done everything we've asked. 

"We school him a lot, he likes flatwork, and then we made sure he could jump stiff uprights out hunting. He's very clever and he got the hang of it very quickly, so the hedges aren't an issue. We keep him busy and he's taken to it pretty well. We've done one parade and we're hoping to go to the festival too."

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