Fil Dor and Appreciate It bid to end winless runs as pair square off for Listed prize

We've got a Supreme Novices' Hurdle winner and a Triumph Hurdle runner-up lining up against each other in this 2m6½f Listed chase, but it is fair to say nothing has quite gone to plan for them after their big days at Cheltenham.

Since landing the 2021 Supreme, Appreciate It has managed just a pair of victories in novice chases at odds of 1-5 and 1-9, and his losing run will stretch to ten if he can't deal with Fil Dor, who chased home Vauban in the 2022 Triumph, and three other rivals.

In fairness to Appreciate It, seven of those subsequent nine runs were in Grade 1 company (two in Grade 2s), and he performed very well in quite a few of them, most notably when he split Fastorslow and Galopin Des Champs in the John Durkan 12 months ago.

That effort, and at least a couple of other performances, makes him the clear form pick against Fil Dor for this big drop in class, but the latter is still only a young man at the age of six and has race-fitness on his side having run a creditable second to Saint Sam in the Grade 2 Clonmel Oil Chase on his return.

That run was over 2m5f, which is the furthest he has ever gone, but his dam is a half-sister to Gold Cup winner A Plus Tard, and he came from a mile back to grab second (third ran Found A Fifty to a neck next time) so this extra yardage might be what he is beginning to want.

The fact he is 0-8 over fences since a successful chase debut in November 2022 does not give him a bet-inducing profile at likely short odds. That said, it would be surprising if either he or Appreciate It didn't win, as National Hunt Chase second Embassy Gardens and bet365 Gold Cup third Nick Rockett look out-and-out stayers and probably won't be best suited by a tactical battle against rivals with speed in their past form. Both are also badly in at the weights under their penalties.

Going update

The going is good. Cool and dry up to and including Thursday, more unsettled thereafter with light rain or drizzle on Friday.

What they say

Willie Mullins, trainer of Appreciate It, Nick Rockett and Embassy Gardens
Appreciate It is in good form and looks really well. He ran a big race in the Punchestown Gold Cup and wasn't beaten far. Nick Rockett jumps and stays. He was our Irish National horse last season but it just didn't work out. All Embassy Gardens does is gallop and jump, and I think the trip caught him out in the National Hunt Chase last season and those exertions told on him at Punchestown afterwards. We thought we'd bring him back in trip and see how he goes.

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