Leading, with the hurdle race nearly over (3,4,5)
I believe the answer is:
one jump ahead
'leading with the hurdle race nearly over' is the definition.
I don't know anything about this answer so I cannot tell whether it can be defined by this definition.
'leading with the hurdle race nearly over' is the wordplay.
I cannot quite see how this works, but
'leading' could be 'head' (I've seen this in other clues) and 'head' is found within the answer.
'hurdle' could be 'jumpa' (synonyms) and 'jumpa' is present in the answer.
'over' could be 'on' (physically on top of) and 'on' is located in the answer.
A single letter 'e' remains which might be clued in a way I don't understand.
This explanation may well be incorrect...
Can you help me to learn more?