Royal Blood s three previous track wins had come on good ground but the yielding to soft surface at Gowran proved no barrier to success for the nine-year-old as he landed the Pricewaterhousecoopers Handicap Steeplechase under Eddie O'Connell.

Philip Dempsey's good servant carrying cheek-pieces and a tongue-strap battled tenaciously on the run-in to get the better of Sang Bleu and Sigma Lifestyle by three parts of a length and a half a length.

Dempsey said: "He is a great horse and it was a nice win to get. He doesn't want winter heavy ground, ideally he wants good ground. He'll go for the Munster National next weekend. It was great to get an up and coming claimer for him like Eddie. He is owned by a Dublin-based syndicate (the Golden Syndicate)."

Unfortunately Pacific Ocean who fell at the fifth, was a fatality.