Darragh Kenny Bests the Rest During WEF 1
Ireland’s Darragh Kenny opened international competition during the Winter Equestrian Festival (WEF) with a win in the $32,000 Adequan® CSI3* WEF Challenge Cup Round 1 on Thursday at Wellington International. Kenny and Irwin, an 11-year-old Dutch Warmblood stallion (Kannan x Paladin des IFS) owned by HKC Collection LLC, topped a field of 72 horses for the win.
Kenny had his eye on Irwin since the mount was seven before becoming part of the Irish Olympian’s string last year. The former ride of Danish show jumper Emil Hallundbaek, Irwin is on a steady climb to the top.
“To be honest, the horse just keeps getting better and better,” he said. “When I bought him he’d never really jumped more than 1.50m. He was still very green but he feels like an incredible horse.”
Irwin didn’t show any inexperience as he carried Kenny to victory by more than a second over courses built by Nick Granat (USA) in WEF’s International Arena.
From a large jump-off brimming with horse and rider talent, Kenny stopped the clock over the short course in 36.16 seconds to best runner-up Charlotte Jacobs (USA) on 11-year-old Irish Sport Horse gelding Rincoola Milsean, owned by Northstar. Jacobs’ time of 37.84 seconds held for second place while Ireland bookended the podium. Cian O’Connor took third on Fancy de Kergane, a nine-year-old Selle Français stallion owned by Susan Magnier and Coolmore Showjumping, in 38.23 seconds.
Press release WEF | Photo Darragh Kenny & Irwin, winners of the $32,000 Adequan® CSI3* WEF Challenge Cup Round 1. © Sportfot
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