This Road To Cheltenham column reflects on where we are in the hurdling divisions ahead of – permission to say it out loud – next month’s Festival. It will be followed by a sister piece on the chasing divisions.

Not until Gordon Elliott was standing in the winner’s enclosure at Leopardstown last Sunday did we hear a tangible reason to believe Brighterdaysahead’s flop in last year’s Champion Hurdle could be explained by something other than a dislike of Cheltenham or leaving her Festival behind with that shock-and-awe display in the 2024 December Hurdle.

“We had a little issue last year after Punchestown and we rectified it. I think it might have been niggling her from Cheltenham,” Elliott revealed. “She had a little issue with her knee… Everything is 100 per cent now.”[link to Elliott interview from Leopardstown on Sunday]

Without this vital nugget of information, it would be too easy to dismiss the mare’s Champion Hurdle credentials. Why should it be any different?

She’s played twice and lost twice at the track, whereas her three key rivals next month all boast career highlights at that meeting. Constitution Hill – when life was simpler and he didn’t have the yips – was outstanding in the 2022 Supreme and almost as brilliant in a Champion Hurdle 12 months later. Titleholding mare Golden Ace has also won there twice, and The New Lion seized last year’s Turners.

The other argument against Brighterdaysahead is her latest Irish Champion Hurdle success was just as brilliant but also at least as gruelling as her hitherto standout display, conducted on ground that was literally unraceable 24 hours earlier. 

So, isn’t she just as likely to have left her Cheltenham dreams on the Leopardstown turf via another season-ending effort?

Like Elliott, I don’t believe her defeat by Golden Ace in the 2024 Dawn Run Mares’ Novices’ Hurdle necessitates excusing. Jack Kennedy was watching Paul Townend on Jade De Grugy, who was watching Kennedy on Brighterdayshaead, neither mare fully settling off a slow pace.

Unfortunately for Kennedy, who held the overmatch in that hand, the rival who trumped them both happened to be good and quick enough to win not only an eventful Champion Hurdle the following year, but the next season’s Fighting Fifth, too.

This explanation, that a dawdle is not her bag at any trip, has only become more credible since we’ve twice witnessed the set-up Brighterdaysahead needs to produce her best form – a good, sound pace from the get-go.

At Christmas last season, stablemate King Of Kingsfield provided it and, together, they exposed the limitations in a below-par State Man. Most recently, El Fabiolo was the sturdy hare who helped undo his own stablemate, Lossiemouth.

Beforehand, I wondered whether heavy ground would be less suitable for Brighterdaysahead than Lossiemouth. Both mares had two pre-existing victories on such testing going but the winner’s standout career-best came on good ground (using the trusty measure of the clock) whereas Lossiemouth’s top-rated Morgiana win came on soft.

Yet it turned out Brighterdaysahead was impervious to conditions whereas Lossiemouth looked uncomfortable, her head titled to one side as soon as passing the stands heading to the second obstacle. Jumping was an effort. Keeping up was an effort. Townend intimated that, had Kennedy not delayed his move until the home turn, Lossiemouth might never have got within respectable hailing distance.

In replicating the calibre of her December Hurdle triumph, Brighterdaysahead has answered the question of whether that was a once-and-once-only offer. It does mean her Leopardstown form is a step above anything else, just as her Cheltenham form is below – markedly so, of course, in the case of her lifeless Champion effort.

“She never looked happy to me,” Elliott recalled of that day. “To be honest, going to the first she was beat. I was at the last hurdle last year and [when she was] coming by first time, she was beat. You know the way you know? The writing was on the wall, I thought, after one hurdle.” [link to 2025 Champion Hurdle]

If her lethargy wasn’t obvious in the tardy start she made with her sidekick last March, it was soon apparent Kennedy could not execute the agreed tactics when his mount was struggling to keep up with her pacemaker as soon as after the first hurdle.

The trainer’s recent revelation – intimating minor surgery last summer – suggests a physical ailment was the cause and had also held her back when defeated by Jade De Grugy on her subsequent retreat to mares-only company at Punchestown in May.

In his post-race interview on Sunday, Michael O’Leary reminded us that the mare had strangely stumbled at the bottom of the chute on the way to post at Cheltenham. He also admitted he was bothered by her consistently awkward head carriage. “I don't like the way she cocks her head when she kind of jumps,” he said. “She did that at Cheltenham last year and she never settled.”

I went through a similar thought-process, watching Brighterdaysahead holding her head sideways on approach to the first flight in the Irish Champion Hurdle, and it caused me to fear a repeat damp squib. But, having now spun through her back catalogue (and as Ruby Walsh mentioned in Monday night’s Road To Cheltenham: DRF Special), it seems likely certain camera angles expose this trait more than others. It’s clearly an ungainly characteristic rather than a flashing red light.

O’Leary contributed another important detail, in passing, in that interview. “But at least she's settling better this year,” he added. “Last year we had King Of Kingsfield out there, trying to blow everybody’s brains out. And she’ll have to do it herself now.”

That crucial aside tells us King Of Kingsfield won’t be supplemented for the Champion Hurdle, and the mare will have to create her own weather.

Stablemate Casheldale Lad led the December Hurdle, when Brighterdaysahead – returning from a series of niggling issues that thwarted a novice-chasing campaign this season – was beaten by Lossiemouth last Christmas, but he was withdrawn due to the ground on Sunday. He also hails from a different ownership entity at Cullentra and therefore not so easily prostituted.

So, how many runners will there be in the Unibet-sponsored Day One centrepiece? Plainly, it could be as few as five or six.

Brighterdaysahead, The New Lion and Golden Ace are definites, barring accidents. Constitution Hill must pass his over-rewarded and utterly irrelevant test on the Flat at Southwell later this month. Hopefully, that event will be contested rather than conceded.

Having raced for just the third time over hurdles last Sunday – picking up the pieces for third under a pot-maximising ride from Danny Mullins in the Irish Champion – last term’s shock Triumph winner Poniros is not qualified for the County. So, he might end up in the Champion. Busted flush Anzadam is qualified, however, and could occupy top weight there. El Fabiolo is Aintree-bound.

Mullins is running out of options with Ballyburn, so I guess he could run here, too. But, again, the intermediate trip at Aintree would appear more suitable and, given that horse’s truculent behaviour in the pre-parade rings at both Leopardstown and Fairyhouse, it’s hard to imagine any race on his short-term horizon.

Kerry Lee might roll the dice with Nemean Lion, given he didn’t finish far behind Golden Ace at Newcastle, he lacks the stamina for the Stayers’ Hurdle and his determination could be rewarding. Equally, she might side-step it. Bar perhaps Casheldale Lad, I can’t see the rest turning up. 

As for Lossiemouth, defeat has surely condemned her to the Mares’ Hurdle for the term of her natural life. The Closutton Order employed maximum papal-envoy diplomacy last season before their actions announced she was no State Man. This season, Townend gave her a subtle find-out ride in the Morgiana, eliciting a career best on paper but failing to dissuade her internal critics.

Like most people, I’m bored of this year in, year out debate. Yet the Mullins-Ricci undercurrents have been more obvious to see this season, so perhaps there is yet more water to flow? I suspect it won’t be the only bridge each side will be playing Pooh Sticks from between now and the Festival.

Not only did Talk The Talk do well to run down the better positioned Ballyfad and King Rasko Grey in the Leopardstown straight to triumph by a short head in the Tattersalls Irish Novices’ Hurdle, but he was not all out to do.

JJ Slevin was clearly intent on settling this raw but talented hurdler – who looks like he’s had a close encounter with a large tin of white paint – despite this Leopardstown Grade One being conducted at a crawl. His mount also jumped better than at Christmas, when his last-flight crumple was presaged by mistakes at the two preceding hurdles.

Angled right to the outer entering the straight, Talk The Talk gained on his two main rivals as they injected some pace and pulled away from their other pursuers. King Rasko Grey – the least experienced of this trio – briefly hit the front on landing after the last until right-adjusting Ballyfad wrested back his advantage, but both were nutted on the line.

When I recommended Talk The Talk on Monday night’s Road To Cheltenham:DRF Special with Jane Mangan, Ruby Walsh wondered whether the horse will be able to replicate the sounder jumping he displayed on Sunday when returned to a faster surface and a more strongly run race. It was good ground on times over Christmas.

Slevin summarily dismissed this concern in his post-race interview, saying: “I never had much issue with his jumping. That never crossed my mind. He was unlucky here the last day. I think it was momentum – he just landed on his head a bit. But that won’t bother him.”

However, it’s a concern I am less inclined to pass unconsidered. Ruby’s case for aiming this horse at the Turners is based on the premise that Cheltenham’s intermediate-distance novices’ hurdle more often ends up as a sprint off a steady pace rather than an end-to-end gallop, to which the Supreme is more prone.

He believes the Turners is therefore less likely to expose jumping flaws. This was, for example, Closutton’s overriding reasoning when running Sir Gerhard on the second day rather than in the opening contest of the 2022 Festival. That decision looks doubly clear-sighted in the rear-view mirror, not only providing that horse with his peak achievement but dodging Constitution Hill’s Supreme in the process.

However, Joseph O’Brien yesterday confirmed Talk The Talk will take on Old Park Star in the Sky Bet Supreme Novices’ Hurdle.

“He’s entered in the Supreme and the Turners, but the overwhelming likelihood is that he’ll run in the Supreme. That’s the plan at the moment anyway,” he told the Racing Post. “I can certainly see the case for the Turners, and he’d have no problem seeing out the trip in that, but my gut feeling is that we'll keep him to two miles for now and go for the Supreme.”

I believe the Turners would suit Ballyfad better than the Supreme as the likely lesser pace will exert less pressure on his habit of adjusting right when jumping – admittedly so far displayed in a front-running scenario, meaning there’s potential for him to go straighter with cover and company – even if there are two extra hurdles to negotiate in the Day Two contest.

Either way Elliott jumps – and he was oscillating between the two targets in his post-DRF interviews – he has a stablemate to join, with El Cairos heading to the Supreme and Skylight Hustle to the Turners. The latter would have been beaten by Talk The Talk over two miles at Christmas had the latter stood up.

In the backwash – the first three pulled clear – Koktail Brut ran better than when breaking blood vessels here at Christmas but Blake got tired after the last and Davy Crockett refused to settle.

Granted some cover rather than making the running, Le Divin Enfant shaped better than the beaten margin might suggest but as that was only his fourth hurdling start, he is not yet qualified for any Cheltenham handicaps.

Starting Fifteen – beaten just a length at level weights by Talk The Talk at Limerick in October – clearly has ability but refused to settle fully and was checked on landing, beaten at the time, at the last.

The Reverend jumped the early flights in the ungainly fashion Ruby had described from the schooling grounds. He was trying to quicken rounding the home turn where he deposited Harry Cobden on the floor – the second occasion in as many major meetings at Leopardstown for the jockey, following Champ Kiely in the Savills Chase at Christmas.

There is a difference of opinion, Geoffrey, on exactly what took place. The stewards believed The Reverend had clipped heels with Talk The Talk whereas Jane and Ruby said their RTÉ pictures suggested he had nudged shoulders and stumbled.

Either way, it ended with Cobden throwing his whip to the ground in frustration and the stewards reminding him to “ride with more awareness in future”.

All this despite the weigh-room welcome party not yet even having been convened for JP McManus’s incoming retained rider in Ireland and Britain. My next column looks at the eye-openingly unfettered work of the current incumbent.

Advised 28/11/25: William Munny at 12/1 for the Unibet Champion Hurdle [Non-runner]

Advised 21/12/25: Majborough at 6/1 for the BetMGM Queen Mother Champion Chase

Advised 02/02/25: Talk The Talk at 11/2 with William Hill for the Sky Bet Supreme Novices’ Hurdle

Advised 08/01/26: I Am Maximus each-way at 33/1 for the Boodles Cheltenham Gold Cup