Deloitte is a bookies' benefit
Benefficient and Bryan Cooper are still going strong at the last
Benefficient stunned punters when landing the honours in the Deloitte Novice Hurdle at Leopardstown.
Complete outsider of the seven-runner field at 50-1, Tony Martin's charge made all the running in the Grade One contest in the hands of Bryan Cooper.
Sous Les Cieux made late progress from the rear, but the 2-1 favourite could never put in a serious blow and was beaten a length and a quarter.
Martin said: "Last time at Thurles (pulled up) was just one of those things. We put a line through it. From the day we got him we all thought he was a very good horse and he's proved it today.
"He's in everything at Cheltenham and I just hope he didn't leave it behind today. I don't think we did on the ground, so it will be something in Cheltenham.
"He's won on heavy, bottomless ground, but he's a good moving horse and he's still only a baby - a big raw six-year-old. Conditions were ideal today."
Cooper added: "It's great to get my first Grade One winner. I rode in a few of them and was unlucky not to be in the money a couple of times.
"Tony (Martin) told me he would run a big race and that the better ground would help him. I got a few lengths on them at the start and he kept on well and jumped the last well.
"That was my first time to ride him but Ruby (Walsh) told me a lot about him in the weighing room before and I have to thank him for that."
Paddy Power cut Benefficient to 16-1 from 50-1 for the Neptune Investment Management Novices' Hurdle at Cheltenham, while Stan James went 20-1 from 50s for that race and 16-1 from 33s for the Albert Bartlett over three miles.
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