A significant potential rival for Constitution Hill in the Champion Hurdle at Cheltenham emerged on the final day of Leopardstown’s Christmas meeting on Sunday, as Brighterdaysahead, a five-year-old mare trained by Gordon Elliott, came home 30 lengths clear of her rivals in the Grade One Neville Hotels Hurdle, with State Man, the reigning champion over timber, only third in a race that he had won for the past two seasons.

State Man set off as the 4-9 favourite for the race on Sunday, despite having had his first defeat in a completed start in Ireland when finishing a close second behind Brighterdaysahead at Punchestown in November. While Brighterdaysahead had made her own running there, however, she had a pacemaker for the rematch in her stable companion, King Of Kingsfield, and the pair steadily built a lead of about a dozen lengths by halfway.

State Man never threatened to make significant inroads into the leaders’ advantage, and after Sam Ewing sent Brighterdaysahead into the lead two out she pulled further clear all the way to the line.

Willie Mullins’s runner clearly failed to run anywhere close to his best form – “I was in trouble from an early stage and never really travelling,” Paul Townend, his rider, said – but Brighterdaysahead’s time of 3min 45.2sec confirmed the visual impression of her wide-margin win.

A long list of outstanding two-mile hurdlers, including Hurricane Fly, Honeysuckle, Istabraq, Sizing Europe and Faugheen, all failed to get within four seconds of that mark at Leopardstown, while the highly competitive two-mile handicap hurdle on Friday, won by Enniskerry under 11st 5lb, was 8.6sec slower.

Brighterdaysahead’s success had an understandable effect on the ante-post betting for the Champion Hurdle, and she is now the 5-1 second-favourite for the feature event on day one of the festival meeting, behind Constitution Hill, the unbeaten winner of the Christmas Hurdle at Kempton on Thursday, at 8-11.

Her festival target, however, remains undecided with the Mares’ Hurdle on the same card also under serious consideration according to Michael O’Leary, Brighterdaysahead’s owner. The winner on Sunday is top-priced at 7-4 for the mares’ event, behind Lossiemouth (13-8), the runner-up behind Constitution Hill at Kempton.

“She was great, but King Of Kingsfield did the hard work as well,” O’Leary said. “Eddie [O’Leary, the owner’s brother and racing manager] called me a couple of years ago and said there’s a mare that we have to buy [and] Gordon has loved her since he got her home, so it’s down to the two of them. I’d go for the Mares’ Hurdle but we’ll have a chat about it closer to Cheltenham, but ultimately Gordon and Eddie will probably decide and I’ll be overruled.”

Brighterdaysahead’s victory was the 100th Grade One success of her trainer’s career, and came on the same afternoon as Elliott’s 2,000th National Hunt winner in Ireland.

“I was nervous watching it as I was wondering if they were going too fast,” Elliott said. “We’ve always thought the world of her and we’re going to enjoy today, but I wanted to give a word to [injured stable jockey] Jack Kennedy, as she’s his mare and he’ll be back riding all these horses once he’s fit.

“It’s good to get it [the 100th Grade One winner] for the lads [in O’Leary’s Gigginstown House Stud operation] who have supported me through thick and thin. I have a brilliant bunch of owners and great staff, but these men have backed me the whole way.”

Daryl Jacob, who announced his imminent retirement from race-riding on Saturday, was unplaced on his final ride, finishing down the field in Leopardstown’s handicap hurdle. He hangs up his boots with 31 Grade One winners to his name and one of the tightest-ever successes in the Grand National at Aintree, aboard Neptune Collonges in 2012.