Fred Winter Juvenile Handicap Hurdle Tips: Barbizon to continue Irish dominance

The opening day of The Cheltenham Festival is upon us, and it is a time where dreams become a reality, for owners, trainers, jockeys and punters.

Plans that have been in the oven for months finally have their reckoning day, and this is no more so than in the Fred Winter, a hugely competitive juvenile hurdle.

A field of 22 have been declared for Tuesday's race and our expert has picked out a pair to follow.

Read on for our Fred Winter Juvenile Handicap Hurdle tips.

Our in-house Horse Racing tipster Owen McMahon has gone through the card for Tuesday's Races and made a selection for every race. Read who he's backing and why with our Cheltenham Day 1 Tips.

The Irish look to maintain their hold on the race

You have to go back to 2017 to find the last British trained winner of the race, with Irish handlers winning the past eight runnings.

Joseph O’Brien has trained the winner of the last two renewals and also the hero in 2019. Gordon Elliott has also sent out three winners in the race over the past decade, and they train four of the 22 runners, two apiece, and look to have a good chance of adding to their success in the race.

Saratoga has been well fancied for sometime, is one of the favourites at time of writing, and he represents the winning connections from 2022 and surely has a chance too.

The other three at the head of the market, Manlaga, Winston Junior and Ammes are all British trained, and the markets expect them to run well. It is of particular interest that Jack Kennedy is aboard Winston Junior and not atop one of the two for Elliott, and this must be a positive booking for the favourite.

As he hasn’t been mentioned, it is worth noting Willie Mullins has three runners declared, and it would surely be of no surprise to anyone to see him win another race at Cheltenham.

Fred Winter Odds

Barbizon @ 20/1

Despite winning three of the past ten renewals of the race, Elliott’s runners aren’t particularly prominent in the market, and of his two entries, it is Barbizon who can prevail and add to the trainers’ success in the race.

Following three runs on the flat, where he was very impressive, he was purchased by Gigginstown, and after a good victory on hurdling debut, has been unable to win again since. This however isn’t of huge concern, he has been running in Graded races, most recently the at the Dublin Racing Festival, and in both, the former favourite of the Triumph hurdle was victorious.

This represents strong form, and although the handicapper hasn’t been lenient, giving him a rating of 134, this could still highly underestimate his potential over hurdles. With Josh WIlliamson claiming 5lb he can outrun his odds and be another winner for Elliott in the race.

Madness D'Elle @ 14/1

The Irish have been dominant over the past decade and it is likely to continue. Our other selection is the WIllie Mullins-trained Madness D’Elle.

His performance when second on stable debut in January was highly encouraging, and he followed up with a win when next seen at Gowran Park. It wasn’t the quickest contest that day and he did have the run of the race from the front.

He looks to have much more ability and a bigger engine than we have seen and provided he can build on the promise he has shown to date, I’d expect him to finish in the places at the least.

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