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Dan Barber takes a punt on Gordon Elliott's grey
Dan Barber takes a punt on Gordon Elliott's grey

Cheltenham Festival 2022 tips: JCB Triumph Hurdle preview

By Dan Barber
Horse Racing
Tue March 22, 2022 · 3y ago

Our Cheltenham antepost series continues with this week's guest, Timeform Jumps Editor and Racing TV pundit Dan Barber, looking at the JCB Triumph Hurdle.

2022 Cheltenham Festival antepost tips

1pt win Fil Dor in JCB Triumph Hurdle at 6/1 (General)

Sky Bet odds | Paddy Power | Betfair Sportsbook

Sometimes it takes a defeat to make you a believer. It isn’t quite John 3:16; rather Dan 18:3, signifying the date on which that belief is set to be tested, at Cheltenham on a Friday as opposed to Bethlehem on a Sunday.

Martin Pipe’s name sits within the title of the closing race on the final day of this blessed spring Festival but it’s the punting Gods rather than a training one that often need calling upon in the opening Triumph Hurdle, as warm favourites have sinned or come to grief in the last four editions.

As a devout backer of Goshen’s ability in one of those years, redemption certainly feels overdue. And it’s FIL DOR who can provide it. It just requires keeping the faith.

Following a solitary Flat start in his native land, Fil Dor started his jumps career in a strikingly similar fashion to how Zanahiyr had begun his the previous season, opening with three successive wins, including in two of the races taken by that year-older stable-companion.

The first port of call was Down Royal in October. The market couldn’t split Fil Dor and Sea Sessions, who’d already gone close in a Punchestown juvenile and was in receipt of 7lb, but there was a chasm between them in the race itself, as the hurdling newcomer powered into the lead before the third last and, propelled by some jumping that belied his lack of experience, opened right up from the next. The final margin was 16 lengths, testament to the dominance of this new face on the juvenile scene.

The Zanahiyr path followed, with Fairyhouse’s Bar One Juvenile the chosen one for Fil Dor’s next appearance. Granted, the winning distance wasn’t so vast, but it did undersell his superiority, Fil Dor overwhelming Lunar Power on the run-in after the runner-up had enjoyed the luxury of lead so soft that the final Timeform Timefigure was only 94.

And, if Fil Dor’s progress had come under question following Fairyhouse, a more decisive beating of Lunar Power - despite meeting that rival on 3lb worse terms - in the Knight Frank on St Stephen’s Day did plenty to ensure faith could be retained, the seven-and-a-half length winning margin double that Zanahiyr had managed in seeing off Busselton in the race in 2021.

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Despite all the positives, it was still prudent to reflect on what Fil Dor had beaten ahead of his toughest ask yet in the Spring Juvenile, the race landed by subsequent Triumph winner, Quilixios, 12 months prior. Only one of those Fil Dor had met in compiling his hat-trick – Six Feet Apart - had gone in subsequently, and that in a race confined to her own sex, whereas the line-up at Fairyhouse looked to feature plenty of depth. Second-favourite Vauban had pushed the previous weekend’s runaway Cheltenham winner Pied Piper, a stable-companion of Fil Dor, all the way on their respective hurdling debuts, while Ben Siegel and Icare Allen arrived on the back of clear-cut wins starting out over hurdles themselves.

And, amid another stellar Dublin Racing Festival for Willie Mullins, it was Vauban who emerged on top, showing a superior turn of foot in a tactical race and passing the line three lengths ahead of Fil Dor, who lost his unbeaten record but still gave plenty of cause for optimism, not least in terms of his attitude – note his low, battling head carriage at the last – and the obvious potential for improvement granted the likelihood of a more strongly-run race in the Triumph, a view supported not only by the way he shaped but also a pedigree chock-full of stamina by the normal standards of a juvenile hurdler.

By Doctor Dino, the globetrotting French-trained middle-distance performer, Fil Dor is out of an unraced half-sister to none other than A Plus Tard, who will be seeking to reward those of a forgiving nature himself in the Gold Cup on the same day at the Festival.

Following such a dry winter, rain for thirty or so days and nights between now and Cheltenham would be very welcome given Fil Dor’s likely stamina edge over so many who will line up against him on Gold Cup day.

Racing claims to be a broad church but this year’s Triumph, with Mullins and Elliott dominating the top of the market, is destined for a regular in its congregation, one who has rightly had to seek forgiveness of his own in the last year or so. And Fil Dor is just too big a price now to Passover. A resurrection is on the cards.

Published at 1215 GMT on 17/02/22

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