Royal County Star takes Punchestown glory

Royal County Star put up a polished performance to take a nice prize at Punchestown in the shape of the Enhance Marketing Chase this evening.

Things were made easier for the Tony Martin-trained 10-year-old when 6-5 favourite Jayo made a bad blunder at the third-last and Davy Russell was cruising on the 5-2 second-favourite coming to two out.

A smooth jump at the last sealed matters and he only needed to be pushed out to beat the consistent Holly Tree by two and a half lengths.

Martin said: "Things just haven't worked out on occasions but everything worked out grand today and he's not a bad horse when everything works out.

"He's a very versatile horse and that race took nothing out of him, he will be kept on the go as he goes on good ground and he hasn't had a particularly hard season."

Earlier, Kieran Purcell's progressive Paddy Pub (9-1) put himself in line for a possible Galway Plate bid when making it a hat-trick of chase wins with victory in the Conyngham Cup.