Gordon Elliott is talking from an armchair in the foyer of the Lord Bagenal Hotel, Leighlinbridge.
This is Willie Mullins territory and behind enemy lines his rival is pondering the sort of dilemma the champion trainer his faced himself a number of times. Does he roll the dice with his star mare or stick against her own sex?
Elliott is relaxed, in good form, but never going to say whether Brighterdaysahead goes to the Champion or Mares’ Hurdle on day one of the Cheltenham Festival.
That’s for another day, probably four-and-a-half weeks away.
She’s enjoyed a perfect season this term, beating State Man in the Morgiana and routing him in the Neville Hotels Hurdle over Christmas. That performance suggested she’s the biggest danger to Constitution Hill regaining his crown next month.
But there’s also lower-hanging fruit available. Whichever way they go, Elliott is pleased with her preparation.
“She’s in good form, Shane McCann who rides her out every day is very happy with her. She’s actually going to do a bit of work after racing on Sunday to have a day away on grass at Navan.
“Look, we’ll leave it as late as we can but we’re not going to leave it until the Sunday morning. We’ll be fair on everyone and make the decision the week before.
“We’ll run her in whatever is the right race for the mare, whether that’s the Champion Hurdle or the Mares’ Hurdle, I’d love to win a Champion Hurdle, and I might be a long time waiting to get a mare like her again.
“I’ll chat with Michael and Eddie (O’Leary) and we’ll make a decision in the week coming into Cheltenham.”
So how do you choose between the two?
“I suppose the right race means I come out of Cheltenham with a winner on Tuesday,” he replied.
“If she won, then that’s the right race to go for. The mares’ race looks possibly the easier one to go for, but a lot can happen in four or five weeks with horses and we’ll have to see what happens to the opposition and then weigh it up.”
Different races, different trips. Is she equally effective over both distances?
“Good question. She’s been good over two-and-a-half but was very impressive the last day over two. Last year at Cheltenham she got beat but that was my fault. I said to Jack Kennedy not to set the race up for Paul Townend by making the running and I suspect Willie probably said the same to Paul, but I’m only guessing.
“The two of them seemed to look at each other and something went by them like a bullet. Both horses won a Grade One two or three weeks after the Cheltenham Festival.
“I just have to go back to what Jack says to me. She doesn’t quicken, she just gallops. She has a cruising speed and when she gets to that it’s hard to stop her. She’s a relentless galloper.”
And nothing Brighterdaysahead has done so far this season has surprised her trainer.
“We always felt she was very good. I always said from day one what I thought of her. She’s only one chip in her armour from that day at Cheltenham. We’re learning about her too. She’s not a filly who likes to make the running, hence we put something in to make it the last day," he said.
The best he’s ever trained?
“She looks very good. To sit here and say she’s the best I’ve ever trained, I’m not going to do that as I’d be telling a lie, but she knows how to win and that’s what you want.”
The only day she hasn’t is ‘that afternoon’ when Golden Ace glided by last March. Even with the gift of hindsight, can Elliott believe she didn’t live up to his pre-event billing?
“I can now but I couldn’t on the day. I thought going there she was my banker for the week and what she’s done since, she looks like she should have been. But as I said, I blame myself on the day, we got tactics wrong, and it was a long week until the Stayers’ Hurdle after that. We had six seconds before we had a winner but that’s the game we’re in.”
Teahupoo broke that run in the Paddy Power Stayers’ Hurdle and is a red-hot favourite to defend his crown.
We’ve only seen him once on the track this season, swept aside by Lossiemouth in a Hatton’s Grace that turned into a speed test. We won’t see him again until March either, but he has Elliott purring right now.
“He did a really good bit of work last week. He’ll have a hack on grass on Sunday and we’re all systems go for the Stayers’. I think his form going into the race this year is probably stronger than last year, being beaten by Lossiemouth giving her weight is stronger form for me than his win the year before.
“The race wasn’t run to suit him in the Hatton’s Grace and I’m happy he’s in good form. When you’re training them, you don’t really look but the race looks like it really suits him. I suppose to me the strongest bit of form this year is probably Joseph’s horse (Home By The Lee) but he just doesn’t seem to be as good at Cheltenham as he is anywhere else.
“For me, he’s the horse I respect the most though.”
However, Elliott has a second dart at the race himself, and one he warns us not to underestimate.
“The Wallpark is in the Stayers’ and obviously qualifies for the Pertemps. I haven’t got anything else qualified this year really, I have one other but he won’t get into the race, he’s too low in the handicap” he continues.
“Obviously I’ll have to speak to the owners, but I honestly feel he has a big each-way chance in the Stayers’. I think he’ll love the track, the fast gallop will suit. If you watch him at Ascot the last day he’d have learned a lot from it, his first run in a Grade One.
“He was very strong from the last to the line and to win a Stayers’ Hurdle on that track you need to be able to do that. There’s a long run from the second last to the line and I think it will really suit him. If he got rolling, he’s not out of it.”
Cheltenham in recent times has been a numbers game for the Irish behemoths, blazing trails never seen before.
Last year Elliott hit the woodwork more often than he’d like but offer him that weekly tally of two winners again, and he’d just about take it.
“I was lucky enough to train eight winners at Cheltenham two years ago, we’ve had threes and twos, ones as well,” he ponders.
“I say it every year, but I’ll be disappointed if I only have one winner but delighted at the same time. We had two last year and a big number of seconds - all the horses ran well. You’re proud of all the horses and your team for the way we turned them out, but we just didn’t get the luck we needed.
“If you go and get a couple of winners you’re delighted and anything over that is a bonus. I’d say we’re probably not as strong in the handicaps as we would have been in some years, but in the novices we’re stronger.”
Brighterdaysahead is primed to lead the day one charge. The Champion must be a huge temptation giving she'd arrive there right at the top of her game, full of confidence and with a running style that might just take the favourite to a place he's never been before at Cheltenham.
I know where I'd be running if the choice was mine.
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