Brighterdaysahead and State Man© Photo Healy Racing
Gordon Elliott’s rising star Brighterdaysahead is likely to line up for the December Hurdle at Leopardstown next, but the Mares’ Hurdle route still looks to beckon come Cheltenham.
The five-year-old has been beaten only once in nine runs under rules, when second to Golden Ace at the Festival last season, and outside of that loss has an impressive record over trips varying from two miles to two miles and five furlongs.
She signed off last season with a Group One win in the Mersey Novices’ Hurdle, and this term took the Grade Three Bottlegreen Hurdle at Down Royal before claiming a notable scalp in the shape of State Man when landing the Morgiana.
Leopardstown’s December Hurdle on the 28th is her intended next start, with the Mares’ Hurdle then looking the more tempting avenue at the Cheltenham Festival, despite her defeat of the reigning Champion Hurdle hero.
“She’s in at Leopardstown, she’s in the two and the three mile (races). The plan is two but we never say never, so we’ll leave her in everything and have a chat with Michael and Eddie (O’Leary, owners) and see what we do,” Elliott told Sky Sports Racing.
“I’d imagine we’ll head for the two-mile race, we’ll have to take on State Man again and he’d be very hard to beat, but it’s the obvious route for us to go and then onto the Mares’ Hurdle at Cheltenham, all being well.”
Of his reasoning for favouring the Mares’ Hurdle, the trainer singled out the Willie Mullins-trained current Champion Hurdle co-favourite Lossiemouth.
He said: “There’s a mare called Lossiemouth…I’m a big believer in running in the races you can win.
“If I’m at Cheltenham on the Tuesday after winning the Mares’ Hurdle and she won 10 lengths and something happened to Lossiemouth or State Man, you’d be a bit disappointed – but at the same time, the ideal race for her looks the Mares’ Hurdle.
“We don’t really know how good she is, she doesn’t do anything at home and she doesn’t even do anything fancy in a race but she just keeps winning and she’s got a big heart – you’d have to love her.”
Elliott also trains the similarly-named Better Days Ahead, who won his first start of the term when defeating Slade Steel on his chase debut and will head for the Long Distance Novice Chase at Leopardstown on Boxing Day.
“He’ll go for the three-miler at Leopardstown, he did it very well in Navan the last day,” the trainer said of his Cheltenham Festival scorer.
“The Martin Pipe is a great stepping stone for those horses and he looked a big chaser in the making. We’ll go for the three miles in Leopardstown and hope the ground won’t be too quick.”
A chaser not guaranteed to appear over Christmas is last season’s Gold Cup runner-up Gerri Colombe, who produced a below-par run when third in the Champion Chase at Down Royal in early November.
He now has a piece of work to do at home before his entry in the Savills Chase is confirmed.
“He disappointed me, to be honest. He never took hold of the bridle,” said Elliott.
“We have him in at Leopardstown at Christmas, I worked him on Sunday and he worked well, but I wouldn’t say he was just there yet.
“He’s doing another bit of work this week for me to be 100 per cent we’re going to go to Leopardstown, we’ll see how he goes later in the week.
“He was very disappointing and we’ve just got to put a line through it and move forward.”
To a far lesser extent, plans are still fluid for Found A Fifty, who will most likely stick on home turf for the Paddy’s Rewards Club Chase, but does also have an entry for the King George at Kempton.
Elliott said: “I think we’ll go to Leopardstown for a two-mile chase. We’ll probably leave him in at Kempton and make a decision nearer the time but I’m leaning towards Leopardstown now.
“It’s 80-20 he’ll go to Leopardstown but never say never, we’ll leave him in there (at Kempton) and keep all our options open.”
