The Ronan McNally trained Dreal Deal has been one of the stories of the Irish jumps season having been a horse no one event knew existed at the start of the term but is now primed for the Supreme Novices' Hurdle at the Cheltenham festival.
It has been a remarkable story for the six year old starting the season off in September off a mark of 84 in handicaps and and at the weekend landed the Grade Two off a mark of 141 and will be sure to go up again for that win.
Having now landed five events on the bounce, four over hurdles and one on the flat, it looks as though the world is his oyster and having stepped up to take the Grade Two Moscow Flyer Novice Hurdle at the weekend, his handler can now dream big.
Although he has entries for both the Supreme and the Ballymore Novices' Hurdles, it looks as though the first race on the Tuesday is the contest of choice.
After his superb performance which saw him drift in the market, but come from last to first to land the black type event, it saw him smashed into 16/1 in places for the Supreme from 66/1 before the event.
🐴 Grade 2 delight for @McnallyRonan as Dreal Deal, a huge drifter in the betting, lands the Sky Bet Moscow Flyer Novice Hurdle at 22/1 under @DenisFORegan at @punchestownrace.
— Racing TV (@RacingTV) January 17, 2021
😲 It was only in September that Dreal Deal won a handicap hurdle off 84
at Navan! pic.twitter.com/8UillRafXd
(Credit Racing Post) McNally said: "His preparation wasn't ideal and that's maybe why the horse drifted. We did fancy him but my horses weren't 100 per cent over Christmas and had a week off.
“We also had frost at home and missed valuable work and took him to the beach last Sunday, but it was half-frozen so he hasn't really galloped. He hasn't been eating as well as he can, either, and his coat hasn't been great. Denis [O'Regan, winning jockey] also thought he needed the run.”
“He won’t be going to the Dublin Racing Festival and will probably go to Cheltenham now. I think he’s entitled to go there. If we have to go for a lesser race in between we will do that. If not it will be straight to Cheltenham.
“He will probably go for the Supreme but will be entered in the Ballymore as well. That was the dream but first he had to go and do that today. He’s done it now so we can dream.”