Gordon Elliott’s mare is set to wait for Punchestown instead.

Gordon Elliott's star mare Brighterdaysahead will bypass the Grade 1 William Hill Aintree Hurdle later this week, with connections opting to head straight to the Punchestown Festival instead.

The Giggingstown House Stud-owned six-year-old completed a top-level double with a scintillating 30-length success in the Neville Hotels Hurdle at Leopardstown over Christmas, but she performed sub-par when finishing a distant fourth behind Golden Ace at the Champion Hurdle at the Cheltenham Festival earlier this month.

A possible clash against Constitution Hill and Willie Mullins' Mares' Hurdle heroine Lossiemouth had been on the cards at Aintree. However, connections have instead revealed she will be saved to run at the Punchestown Festival at the beginning of May.

Speaking to the Racing Post on Monday, Elliott said: "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."

The Cullentra House-based handler may still be represented in the contest, with Wodhooh likely to step up in grade on the back of her facile triumph in the concluding contest at the Cheltenham Festival, the Martin Pipe Handicap Hurdle.

Whilst Brighterdaysahead's absence is a disappointment for the William Hill Aintree Hurdle, both Willie Mullins and Nicky Henderson have reported in recent days that their star entries, Constitution Hill and Lossiemouth, remain on course to take each other on in the two-and-a-half-mile Grade 1.