Gordon Elliott lavishes praise on unbeaten Brighterdaysahead

The unbeaten mare Brighterdaysahead had trainer Gordon Elliott delivering uncharacteristically lavish praise after stretching her unbeaten record to five races at Navan on Sunday.

Jack Kennedy’s mount landed the Listed Apple’s Jade Hurdle in a canter to set her up for a mouthwatering clash with Willie Mullins’s Jade De Grugy in Cheltenham’s mares novice hurdle next month.

Owned by Ryanair boss Michael O’Leary’s Gigginstown Stud, the sister to Mighty Potter and Caldwell Potter dotted up by a dozen lengths and is a general 3-1 shot to get the better of Jade De Grugy at the festival.

“She’s a good mare, a proper mare. She’s very, very good – I don’t say that about too many,” reported Elliott. “Jack said he couldn’t get a lead any longer on her and he said she wasn’t doing a stroke in front.

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“She’ll come on from it too as we missed a little bit of time with her, nothing serious just niggly things. She’s got a pedigree to be nice and her future is in front of her. She looks like a chaser.

“I’d say at the moment she doesn’t want that far, she’s got a bit of boot for a big mare, but we had nothing else to run her in because I missed her last engagement and I didn’t want to go to England with her,” he added.

Shortly afterwards, the Mullins team added to their strength in the mares novice division when Fun Fun Fun delivered them a rare victory at Exeter in a Listed contest.

Daryl Jacob, out of luck on Mullins’s Ocastle Des Mottes in Saturday’s Betfair Hurdle won by Iberico Lord at Newbury, did the steering on the Irish runner.

In other news, English trainer Dan Skelton has all but ruled out a Gold Cup attempt for his top chaser Protektorat after the Grade One winner managed only third to Shishkin at Newbury on Saturday.

The 2022 Gold Cup third could instead take his chance in Cheltenham’s Ryanair Chase over a shorter trip or skip the festival in order to wait for Aintree.

“He isn’t going for a Gold Cup unless something ridiculous happens,” Skelton said.

“The options are Ryanair or Aintree. He will be going to the Ryanair if he is super well and we really think it is the right thing, so we will be led by the horse.”