Nap of the Day: Brighterdaysahead ready to shine at Leopardstown again

Another trio of exciting jumps meetings take place on Sunday, with Scotland's Festival Trials Meeting at Musselburgh joined by the action from Market Rasen and, of course, the Dublin Racing Festival at Leopardstown.

There are four Grade 1 contests at Leopardstown, including the Dublin Chase (14:10) and the Irish Champion Hurdle (15:20) as the likes of Marine Nationale and Lossiemouth go into battle. Sunday's Nap is from Leopardstown and bids to avenge a Christmas reverse with match sharpness now on her side.

15:20 Leopardstown Odds

The Irish Champion Hurdle promises a rematch between December's course and distance Grade 1 first and second Lossiemouth and BRIGHTERDAYSAHEAD.

On that occasion it was the Willie Mullins-trained Lossiemouth who prevailed by a length, adding to her easy win in the Morgiana Hurdle at Punchestown in November.

It meant she had won her last four, but the DRF hasn't been kind to Rich Ricci's star. She was an unlucky second in the Spring Juvenile Hurdle here in 2023 and took a fall in this race 12 months ago.

Brighterdaysahead used up some fuel getting after her at Christmas and loomed as a major danger, only to flatten out after the last.

Gordon Elliott is confident his Gigginstown House Stud inmate will come on appreciably for that run.

Things went awry for Brighterdaysahead back in the spring at Cheltenham and Punchestown, but the stunning performance she put over this C&D in December 2024 isn't easily forgotten.

Jack Kennedy may well revert to the sort of forcing tactics that paid off that afternoon.

Conditions will be testing, but this mare has won a bumper on soft-heavy, a novice hurdle on heavy and a Grade 1 in open company on soft when she beat no less than State Man in the 2024 Morgiana at Punchestown.

Her trainer is taking a markedly different approach to the DRF this year, with designs on the Irish trainers' championship and banking some big prize money.

She hasn't had as many runs as Lossiemouth and it is worth recalling that after a precocious start to her career, another Gigginstown mare - Apple's Jade - endured some testing times before proving herself a top-class performer in open company, including winning this race under Kennedy in 2019.

Brighterdaysahead is a seven-year-old now, as Apple's Jade was then, and she could be about to deliver another Leopardstown statement performance.

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