AT Arqana’s Autumn Sale in November 2020, Joey Logan paid €88,000 for a two-year-old gelded son of Doctor Dino (Muhtathir) on behalf of Andy and Gemma Brown. The owners, who also race at Caldwell Construction Ltd., left Fil Dor in France where he was placed on his only start on the flat.

Transferred to Gordon Elliott, he is now a firm favourite for the Grade 1 Triumph Hurdle at Cheltenham after extending his unbeaten hurdle run to three, adding the Grade 2 Knight Frank Juvenile Hurdle at Leopardstown to a prior success in a Grade 3 at Fairyhouse. A day after his Christmas win there was almost a family double at the meeting when A Plus Tard (Kapgarde) was narrowly defeated in the Grade 1 Savills Chase.

Fil Dor’s sire Doctor Dino has featured regularly enough now in this column, thanks to the exploits of A Plus Tard, Sharjah, Sceau Royal and La Bague Au Roi, all Grade 1 National Hunt winners. It would appear to be formality, given normal luck, that Fil Dor will join that list this season.

This week’s big race winner was bred by Antonia Devin, nee Feeney from Ardoon Stud outside Newbridge. She and her husband Henri have used Doctor Dino, winner of the Grade 1 Man O’War Stakes in the USA and back-to-back runnings of the Group 1 Hong Kong Vase, to great effect with the family of Fil Dor.

Fil Dor’s siblings

A son of the unraced La Turbale (Ange Gabriel), Fil Dor is a full-brother to the listed flat winner Style Icon (Doctor Dino), and they are two of their dam’s three winners with her first five foals, the other being the listed-placed hurdler Le Lude (Turgeon).

La Turbale is a sibling to three winners, A Plus Tard, a three-time Grade 1 winner, Kap Auteuil (Kapgarde) who won five of his seven starts over fences in 2021, and October’s three-year-old hurdle winner File Au Poteau (Doctor Dino). They are all sons of five-time jumps winner Turboka (Kahyasi).

Finally, for good measure, October also saw a Grade 3 chase win in France for L’Aubonniere (Doctor Dino), a half-sister to the aforementioned Turboka and a full-sister to the listed chase winner Dottore (Doctor Dino). L’Aubonniere is now the best of nine winners from the multiple stakes winner Turbotiere (Turgeon).