Racing superstars Lossiemouth and Constitution Hill will go head to head in an Aintree showdown at the Grand National Festival after Willie Mullins confirmed plans for the former.
Thursday’s Aintree Hurdle will be one of the races of the season, as the two titans face off, although the prospect of a three-way heavyweight battle was denied when Gordon Elliott revealed Brighterdaysahead was being withdrawn from the race to focus on the Punchestown Festival instead.
The £250,000 Grade 1 event over two and a half miles is the headline on day one of Grand National weekend, with the titular race being run in its traditional Saturday afternoon slot – the final day of the Festival.
Mullins revealed to the Racing Post on Monday that Lossiemouth was a go for the Aintree Hurdle, with Tuesday’s declarations confirming that fact – setting up a rematch of the showdown in the Christmas Hurdle at Kempton on Boxing Day, where Constitution Hill beat Lossiemouth by two and a half lengths.
However, Constitution Hill fell at the fourth-last fence when a heavy favourite for the Champion Hurdle at last month’s Cheltenham Festival, while Lossiemouth brilliantly won the Mares’ Hurdle for the second straight year that week.
Although she has dominated the Mares’ Hurdle for two years now, Lossiemouth has never previously run at Aintree but Mullins knows how to train an Aintree Hurdle winner, having done so in 2016 with Annie Power and last year with Impaire Et Passe.
The two-way battle was supposed to be a three-headed showdown but after struggling in the Champion Hurdle at Cheltenham when apparently tweaking something early in the race to finish a distant fourth behind winner Golden Ace, Brighterdaysahead has been pulled out.
Trainer Elliott explained: “Aintree is just coming too soon for Brighterdaysahead, unfortunately. She wasn't herself in the Champion Hurdle – I could tell that from a very early stage – and it just wouldn't be the right thing to do for her to travel over to Aintree. She's still a young mare with her whole career in front of her.
“We'll get her ready for Punchestown instead. There's a nice break between Cheltenham and Punchestown, so we have another few weeks with her. She will either run in the Champion Hurdle or the Mares' Hurdle there.”
Brighterdaysahead had claimed a Grade One double earlier this season in the Morgiana Hurdle and the Neville Hotels Hurdle but won’t be in the Aintree Hurdle to try and stop Mullins claiming his third victory in the event, as well as a second in a row after Impaire Et Passe bested Bob Olinger and Langer Dan in a thrilling three-way fight last year.
