Grand National 2022: Delta Work Profile
Delta Work for Gordon Elliott and Giggingstown has fired himself up the odds table for the 2022 Grand National following his heartbreaking victory over the legend Tiger Roll in the Cross Country Chase at Cheltenham. Here we have profiled the nine-year-old ahead of his title at Aintree glory...
Delta Work
Age: 9
Trainer: Gordon Elliott
Chase Runs: 16
Chase Wins: 7
Notable Race Wins: 2018 Drinmore Novices' Chase, 2019 Savills Chase, 2020 Irish Gold Cup, 2022 Cross Country (Cheltenham Festival)
There can't be many more unpopular horses in training right now than DELTA WORK after he so agonisingly denied now retired stablemate Tiger Roll a fitting farewell to the National Hunt game with a grinding win in the Cross Country Chase at the Cheltenham Festival. Only jockey Jack Kennedy seemed to be genuinely delighted with the result as both the trainer Gordon Elliott and the owners were more deflated for the gallant Tiger. However, taking sentiment out of the equation this was a fine performance from Delta Work to beat a clearly primed opponent over a course we know he relishes so much.
Delta Work had seemed to go right off the boil with a string of poor performances since defeating Kemboy back in the 2020 Irish Gold Cup. Despite only being nine years of age, many considered the formerly high class staying chaser a spent force. Not his trainer. Gordon Elliott has done a remarkable job rejuvenating the horse and getting him back loving his jumping, which was so evident over the banks at Cheltenham. We have seen in recent years how transferrable an aptitude around there can be for Aintree success and with Delta Work in the perfect hands he has a favourite's chance to emulate Tiger Roll.
He has a seriously high class body of work behind him, with some highlights being his stunning novice chase campaign in which he came off just third best in a pulsating battle with Topofthegame and Santini in the old RSA at the 2019 Cheltenham Festival, before bouncing back in style at Punchestown to mark himself as a leading Gold Cup contender for 2020. After winning the Savills Chase at the end of 2019 before the aforementioned Irish Gold Cup in early 2020, he headed back to Cheltenham looking to go two places better in the Gold Cup than he'd managed the year before. Things didn't go quite to plan for the 11/2 shot on the day as he finished in fifth, six and a half lengths behind eventual winner Al Boum Photo.
His Grade One chasing days may have come to an end that Friday afternoon in March but now back loving the game after his Cross Country triumph, his days in the sun are certainly not over and his biggest one yet could be set to materialise on Merseyside.
