Exciting £350,000 Festival Sale recruit set to debut for Elliott and the Morans

It doesn’t make the cut for ITV4, who by then will be preparing for the second half of their fantastic Friday offering, but the bumper at Down Royal (3.50) should still be worth catching.

There are only three runners but one of them commanded £350,000 at the Tattersalls Cheltenham Festival Sale in March and has his first run since.

That’s Better Days Ahead, who had preceded his sales appearance at Prestbury Park with a four-length score in a Lisronagh point-to-point a few weeks before, which he won every bit as cosily as the margin suggests.

By Milan, the four-year-old is out of Topanoora mare Bonnie And Bright, and is a brother to three winners including six-time scorer Milan Bound.

He was consigned at Cheltenham by his trainer Warren Ewing, who had picked him up from Lakefield Farm for €47,000 at the Goffs Land Rover Sale of 2021.

Bective Stud and Gordon Elliott were the buyers at Cheltenham, and the exciting gelding makes his debut under rules with Jamie Codd in the saddle.

Speaking at the sale. Elliott said: "He's from the consignor of Constitution Hill so hopefully he'll be lucky. He won his point very well and looked a nice horse."

Ewing said: "He's really a super horse, he has a lovely head on him, and he's going to a great trainer. It's going to be nice seeing him running in the Morans' colours in the future."

It has to be said that quite what connections will learn against two rivals, one of whom, Do As Your Told, is unraced, remains to be seen, but it will still be fascinating to see how Better Days Ahead shapes up, especially as he is already prominent in the market for the Champion Bumper at the Cheltenham Festival.

His opponent with form, Carnfunnock, won a bumper at Ayr last November and then contested Grade 2 and 1 bumpers in Ireland, on the latter occasion reportedly scoping badly post-race when tailed off behind Facile Vega.

Carnfunnock has to concede 7lb to the year-younger Better Days Ahead, while the filly Do As Your Told receives a stone and 7lb respectively.

2023 Champion Bumper

Sky Bet: 10 Chapeau De Soleil, King Of Kingsfield, 16 Barry The Butcher, Better Days Ahead, 20 bar

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