The secret is out! Delta Work is now a leading RSA contender after Drinmore win

Perhaps we did not give Delta Work the recognition he deserved for winning the Pertemps Final or getting within a neck of Next Destination in a Grade 1 at Punchestown last spring but the secret is definitely out now. The grass is not long enough to hide his ability anymore.

Don Cossack (2013), No More Heroes (2015) and Death Duty (2017) all arrived in the Drinmore with bigger reputations but the way in which Delta Work recovered from making a mess of the last to beat Le Richebourg a shade cosily means we must start talking about him as a genuine RSA contender.

BoyleSports halved his price from 20-1 into 10-1 for that, while the same firm introduced him as their 8-1 favourite for the National Hunt Chase. Paddy Power make him a 10-1 shot for the RSA.

Gordon Elliott, who was celebrating his fifth Drinmore success since 2010, was thrilled with his latest winner of the race and pointed him in the direction of the Neville Hotels Novice Chase at Leopardstown's Christmas festival.

"He jumped well and showed a good attitude. You would love the way he picked up from the back of the last after missing it. I was impressed," Elliott said.

"He’s not the biggest most robust horse in the world but he’s a nice horse and we’re lucky to have him. I’d imagine Leopardstown at Christmas will be the plan. All he does is jumps and stays. He won a Pertemps at Cheltenham but I liked the way he travelled through the race today."

Delta Work (right) stays on well to overhaul Le RichebourgCredit: Patrick McCann

Delta Work travelled like the most likely winner most of the way but he was awkward over the last and Davy Russell lost an iron in the process so he needed class to prevail.

Russell said: "I got a lovely run through, he jumped great and has done everything well. Going down to the last he had a good look at it. I ended up losing my iron at the back of it but he was good enough to come back and do it then so all credit to the horse really."

The winning margin between Delta Work and Le Richebourg was half a length, with a further eight lengths back to the keen-going Jetz in third.

In what proved to be an incident-packed contest, Rashaan refused to race, while Dawn Shadow fell at the first and Cubomania came down at the second-last.

Drinmore result & replay

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