Denis O'Regan came from the clouds on rapid improver Dreal Deal to win the Sky Bet Moscow Flyer Novice Hurdle at Punchestown.
Trained by Ronan McNally, the six-year-old Dreal Deal has been one of the stories of the season in Ireland and was completing a remarkable sequence of victories which began in a lowly handicap hurdle at Navan in September.
He'd since added two more hurdle victories to his tally, as well as squeezing in a couple of Flat victories at Limerick and Cork along the way during October, yet despite all of this was sent off a largely unconsidered 22/1 chance as he faced off against some lightly-raced novices from leading yards.
One of those opponents was Ganapathi (7/2) for Willie Mullins and it was he who looked the likeliest winner taking the second-last flight of hurdles, having travelled up well under Brian Hayes to pick up the running from long-time leader and stablemate Echoes In Rain (6/1).
But Dreal Deal - held up well off the searching gallop and still last of the seven runners turning into the straight - was given a typically patient ride by the experienced Denis O'Regan, and he finished with a wet sail after the final flight to ultimately win going away by three lengths from Ganapathi.
Third went to another Mullins runner in the shape of 9/2 chance Power Of Pause under Bryan Cooper.
McNally now has his sights on Cheltenham and the Sky Bet Supreme Novices’ Hurdle and the sponsors cut the winner to 20/1 from 50s for the Festival curtain-raiser.
The firm's Michael Shinners said: "The remarkable Dreal Deal caused a major surprise winning the Sky Bet Moscow Flyer at 22/1. The progress this horse has shown is unbelievable and we now go 20/1 from 50/1 for the Sky Bet Supreme at Cheltenham."
McNally said: “He won’t be going to the Dublin Racing Festival in Leopardstown and will probably go to Cheltenham now. I think he’s entitled to go there now.
“If we have to go for a lesser race in between, we will do that, and if not it will be straight to Cheltenham.
“He will probably go for the Supreme, but he will be entered in the Ballymore as well. That was the dream, but he had to go and do that today.
“He’s done it now – so we can dream!”
The victory was made all the more remarkable because Armagh-based McNally revealed the build-up had been far from ideal.
He said: “We had a poor preparation, because he got a stone bruise during the week and that’s why he didn’t go to Fairyhouse (on Tuesday).
“All my horses were a wee bit off around Christmas, so they got a week off – and then with the frost, they missed work as well, so to be honest he’d done no galloping.
“Also his coat wasn’t great the last couple of weeks, and he hasn’t eaten as well he could. Nothing really was clicking, but we needed to get a run into him, and I knew anything he did today that he’d go forward from it."
O’Regan added: “He can travel real well, but it just takes him a while to get going – and thankfully he got going in the straight. He’d a good jump at the last and won all right in the end.
“He’s definitely entitled to step up into higher company again, and it’s something to look forward to. Well done to Ronan and the team."
