Champion Hurdle: what the vanquished had to say

Gordon Elliott and Dan Skelton were both left looking towards Aintree after seeing Brighterdaysahead and The New Lion fill out the places in the Unibet Champion Hurdle.

Brighterdaysahead proved too strong Lossiemouth in the Irish Champion Hurdle at Leopardstown last month, but the tables were turned at Prestbury Park as the latter claimed her fourth Cheltenham Festival success and Elliott’s mare suffered defeat in the Cotswolds for the third year on the spin.

The Cullentra handler did not want to make any excuses for his star mare, but feels she is now in need of a step up in trip on spring ground.

“We’re absolutely delighted, Jack (Kennedy) said he couldn’t go any quicker on her,” said Elliott.

“The ground probably didn’t suit her, but she tried her heart out and galloped all the way to the line.

“We’ll probably look at something like Aintree now over two and a half miles. I’d say coming back to Punchestown could be a bit short for her.”

Skelton was similarly magnanimous in defeat after seeing The New Lion beaten for the first time when completing over obstacles.

He said: “I’m very happy with how he ran and there are no excuses. He jumped beautifully and I’m very, very proud of the horse, what more can we say?

“Lossiemouth is a very worthy winner. She’s waited her time to get in the race and now she’s won a Champion Hurdle – well done to them.

“We were giving 7lb to the two mares and it’s a great effort from our horse. I’ve had a great build-up to it, we got a clear round and he ran his heart out, we just got beat.

“I should imagine we’ll go on to Aintree.”

One place further back in fourth was Joe Tizzard’s Alexei, who has made giant strides this season with wins in a valuable handicap at Ascot, the Greatwood Hurdle at Cheltenham and the Kingwell at Wincanton.

Part-owner Garth Broom said: “He ran very well and just to have one competing in this sort of race is fantastic. If you’d said at the start of the season you can have fourth place in the Champion Hurdle, I’d have bitten your hand off I think!

“It was only after he won the Greatwood here in November we started thinking about it, before then it hadn’t really crossed our minds.

“If he comes out of it OK we could look at Aintree. He is a speed horse, I think he’d handle two and a half miles at Aintree on a flatter track, but we’ll see.”

Golden Ace finished fifth in her bid for back-to-back Champion Hurdle wins, and trainer Jeremy Scott said: “Lorcan (Williams) was saying if the ground was a lot softer I think we’d have been better and we were just outpaced going down the hill.

“Lorcan felt the whole way she was in top gear. She made a mistake at the second-last that didn’t help us but the reality was we weren’t quick enough.

“In hindsight we should have kept her in the Mares’ Hurdle and once Lossiemouth was coming here, we should have done the opposite of last year and run in the longer race. But the owner was keen to come here, we gave it a go and came up short.

“I think we might go back to Punchestown. There’s a two-and-a-half-mile mares’ race there and their Champion Hurdle, so we can enter in both and see.”

Supplemented entry Tutti Quanti came home eighth of the nine runners after proving difficult at the start.

“It was no fault of the starters,” jockey Harry Cobden told ITV. “I don’t know, he just got down there and he didn’t want to play today.

“He kept digging his toes in and when he did jump off, he was in an impossible position to run any race. It was game over.”