Bred by a Dr. P. J. O'Leary in County Cork, Workman was a very large, powerful brown gelding sired by Cottage out of the Argentinian-bred mare Cariella.
After winning a long distance steeplechase at Punchestown Racecourse in 1936 he was bought for 1500 guineas[2] by the millionaire match manufacturer Sir Alexander Maguire and sent to be trained by Jack Ruttle at Hazelhatch Stud near Celbridge, County Kildare.
[3] In the 1939 Grand National he carried a weight of ten stone six pounds and started at odds of 100/8 in a field of thirty-seven runners.
[4] An unusual feature of the race was a large public gamble on a runner named Blue Shirt after a message in a bottle was washed up on the Irish coast tipping the horse to win.
Tim Hyde also had further success on English Turf when he returned in 1946 to win the Cheltenham Gold Cup on Prince Regent.