Gordon Elliott is confident last year's sixth Better Days Ahead has what it takes to get closer to the target in the BOYLE Sports Irish Grand National.
Fairyhouse plays host to the three miles and five-furlong contest on Easter Monday and while the current leading in the trainers' championship has a lot of respect for the English raiders after Haiti Couleurs' win in the race last spring, he's been working back from April 6 with Better Days Ahead for a long time.
Speaking at a BOYLE Sports Irish Grand National gallops morning, Elliott said: "We've had the seasons of all seasons, we haven’t missed a beat all season. Cheltenham obviously wasn’t as good as we'd have liked it, but that's sport. We've been lucky enough to have nine graded winners this year so far, and these three days of the Easter Festival are going to be massive.
"There's a lot of prize money across the three days and the BOYLE Sports Irish Grand National is one of the biggest handicaps of the year, and a lot of prize money around it. We’re probably going to have runners in most races, but you kind of have to split everything up.
"The Irish Grand National has been the plan all year for Better Days Ahead. He's in very good form. I'd love to see the ground staying like that, soft. I wouldn't like to see it getting too quick. Look, he's probably going to be top weight or close to it so it's not ideal. The weights could go up almost a stone looking at the entries.
"Search For Glory is probably on the other end of the scale to Better Days Ahead. I think the better the ground, the better this horse is. For a big horse, he just can't handle soft ground. He’s probably at the right end of a handicap, hopefully.
"But I think the English horses are going to be very dangerous coming over here. If you watch their record over the last year, coming over for the likes of Punchestown, the big handicaps. You look at what Rebecca Curtis’ horse Haiti Couleurs did here last year. There’s talk of a lot of them coming over this year and we saw how well-handicapped they looked at Cheltenham, so I think the English are going to be very, very dangerous over here."
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