On what was already a good afternoon for Wexford connections, the father and son team of James and Liam Kenny also got among the winners when their Green Vault put his experience to good use by taking the second of the 2m 4f point-to-point bumpers for five and six-year-old geldings.
Dropped out by Kenny, the Shirocco gelding came from last to first with a move around the extreme outside on the home bend and soon made his way through to lead before going to defeat Gavin Cromwell’s acquisition Midnight It Is, a horse who had fallen in the closing stages of a Borris House maiden in November.
Owned by Gavan Kinch, secretary of the Island hunt point-to-point, the winning five-year-old had finished a good second to Broomfield Burg in a four-year-old maiden at Castletown-Geoghegan back in October, so was certainly not winning out of turn.
“I was happy to drop in, I knew he wasn’t slow and had plenty of boot and just follow away and he travelled into it nicely,” said the winning rider.
“He had run one as a first season four-year-old, we just gave him the run as we knew he needed the experience, but his second run was actually very good he was second in Castletown and then on his third run he was a bit disappointing.
“A couple of Dad’s horses scoped wrong afterward so he always went well at home. Usually he would be going for a point-to-point but with the current situation we said we would take out chance.
“Coming from a point-to-point yard he will be for sale and we will probably head for a sale now whenever there is one upcoming.”
