Revenge for Brighterdaysahead in clash of the mares

Brighterdaysahead turned the tables on Lossiemouth to claim top honours in the Timeless Sash Windows Irish Champion Hurdle.

The Willie Mullins-trained Lossiemouth had come finished in front when the pair met for the first time in Leopardstown’s December Hurdle late last month and she was the 4-6 favourite to confirm her superiority in their Dublin Racing Festival rematch.

However, Brighterdaysahead (11-4) was entitled to improve from what was her first start of the season following an autumn setback and took her revenge in the hands of Jack Kennedy.

Lossiemouth’s stablemate El Fabiolo led the five-strong field for much of the two-mile journey, with Brighterdaysahead always his nearest pursuer while Paul Townend did not appear entirely happy on board the market leader racing down the back straight in third.

With El Fabiolo falling away, Lossiemouth did manage close the gap on Brighterdaysahead rounding the home turn, but Gordon Elliott’s mare finished the stronger in the testing conditions and was three and a quarter lengths in front at the line.

Elliott said: “We knew she had improved from the last day, whether she was good enough to beat Lossiemouth we weren’t sure.

“Jack had a plan that if nobody was going to make it we were going to make it. She’s very very tough and she stays.

“It’s great to be involved in these races and to win them is extra special. I was so nervous coming to the last, just thinking ‘I hope she jumps it’.

“Lossiemouth is a superstar and our one is a superstar as well. We’re lucky to have her.”

Brighterdaysahead is the 5-2 joint favourite with Coral for the Champion Hurdle alongside Dan Skelton’s The New Lion, having been cut from 9-2. Lossiemouth is an 11-4 shot and the 5-4 favourite to win a third Mares’ Hurdle instead.

“All you have to do is look at her. She’s gorgeous, she’d take the eye out of your head,” Elliott went on.

“The plan was to go chasing this year but Michael (O’Leary) put his foot down. He said that half the season was gone and so right he was, he normally is right.”

Of Lossiemouth, Townend said: “I was never comfortable on her. It surprised me that I actually got in with a chance at any stage. Everything was hard work today.”