Banks specialist Vital Island finally had his big moment in the spotlight at Punchestown as he ran out a game winner of the Ladies Cup on day one of the Punchestown Festival on Tuesday evening.
The ten-year-old has proven to be something of a standing dish at his local banks venue in Lingstown, winning there on four separate occasions including a defeat of Singing Banjo there last season.
However Singing Banjo had gained revenge on him in last year’s Ladies Cup when reversing that Lingstown form, defeating him by a length and a quarter.
Coming into the 2022 edition, Richard O’Keeffe’s charge entered the race on the back of a rare non-completion on home soil at Lingstown a month earlier, however that was well and truly put behind him as Benny Walsh positioned the Trans Island in mid-division as Aidan Fitzgerald’s pair of Ballinasilla and Ihavent A Clue took the field along.
Kildare Hunt Ladies Cup %uD83C%uDFC6%uD83D%uDC47
— Punchestown (@punchestownrace) April 26, 2022
Vital Island - Benny Walsh - R P O’Keeffe#Ptown22 pic.twitter.com/DxgyQ0GJGH
The tenth-fence departure of How’s Trix did see Vital Island hampered, however he remained in the race and steadily moved closer.
As the race began to develop on the climb from the Canal Turn fence, Vital Island loomed upsides the pace-setting pair jumping Ruby’s Double in the reverse direction as one of the joint-favourites, Good Bye Sam, also began to take up a challenging position.
However Patrick Mullins’ mount did not jump at the same speed as those in front of him which allowed them to build up an advantage and although he did arrive on the scene joining the racecourse proper, Vital Island gallantly held him off to prevail by half-a-length.
Tech Talk, who had finished second in Lingstown last month, came through to take the third spot, with the long-timer leader Ballinasilla fading into fourth place.
For winning rider Benny Walsh, this success came ten years after his last victory in the Ladies Cup, when he had teamed-up with Peter Maher’s Big Shu to win the 2012 edition.
