'Hopefully next season will be a big one for him' - Better Days Ahead saving the best for last

The portentously named Better Days Ahead not only saved the best till last for his breeders the Nagle family but also his homebred dam Bonnie And Bright. 

A son of Coolmore's late Milan and the 11th foal out of his unraced dam, the strapping six-year-old demonstrated his latent talent when staying on to capture the Martin Pipe Conditional Jockeys' Handicap Hurdle at Cheltenham. Success in the final race of the festival capped an excellent record at paddocks for his retired dam. 

Better Days Ahead, a brother to Milan Bound, a four-time winner over hurdles and a winner over fences, and the ill-fated Acey, a dual bumper winner, is now the highest rated of all Bonnie And Bright's progeny with a Racing Post Rating of 147. 

Nagle, who works for Irishracing.com, said of the family: "My dad [TJ] trains and breeds racehorses and my grandfather [Tom] bred Better Days Ahead's granddam Bright News. He bought the great-granddam Tarabelle and it's a family we've had for several generations."

While Nagle did not attend the festival, there was plenty of emotion watching the Gordon Elliott-trained Better Days Ahead pull a length and a half clear under Danny Gilligan. Given his physique and scope, there should be better to come from a horse who also ran well behind subsequent Supreme Novices' Hurdle winner Slade Steel at Navan this season.

"We were at home and screaming at the telly," said Nagle. "He's the second-last foal out of Bonnie And Bright and she had a filly after him who we've kept to breed from. 

"The family is bred for staying and you'd imagine chasing would be his game, Gordon's always said that once he goes over fences he should come into his own. 

"Hopefully next season will be a big one for him as Gordon's always thought very highly of him."

A winner of his sole point-to-point for Warren Ewing before selling to owners Bective Stud and Elliott for £350,000 at the 2022 Tattersalls Cheltenham Festival Sale, he has won three of his eight starts under rules. He ran in last year's Champion Bumper won by A Dream To Share, and if he makes an appearance at Cheltenham next March for the third year in a row, you would imagine a novice chase is on the agenda.

Better Days Ahead selling at the 2022 Tattersalls Cheltenham Festival Sale

Nagle said: "He's very like his siblings; every foal the dam's had by Milan has had a great attitude and he seems to have that. He's a lot bigger than some of the other good ones she's bred, but maybe she's saved the best for last!"

Topanoora's daughter Bonnie And Bright, who was placed in a couple of point-to-points, is a sibling of several other achievers bred from Better News. They included Graded novice hurdle and Cork National winner The Bishop Looney, on whom Nagle later won a point-to-point at Ballindenisk, and black-type mare Very Special One.

There is more to come from the family as Better Days Ahead's unraced half-sister Wota Dote is in the early stages of her breeding career. The five-year-old is by Gatewood, George Strawbridge's son of Galileo whose eight wins included the Group 3 Prix de Reux and Geelong Cup, and she is another who knows the way to Coolmore. 

Nagle added: "His half-sister is by Gatewood, who didn't get many mares, but she had a Maxios foal last year and is in foal to him again. She's not due until the end of April."

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