Offaly's Darragh Kenny claims second place in five star event in Florida

Offaly Darragh Kenny was narrowly beaten in the 406,000 CHF 1.60m Grand Prix at the CSI5* show in Wellington International in the early hours of this morning.

Riding the 14-year-old stallion Volnay Du Boisdeville owned by Teddy Vlock and Vlock Show Stables LLC, the Belmont rider jumped clear in both rounds and recorded an impressive time 45.09 seconds in the jump off. 

Kenny stopped the home nation from filling the top four places. McLain Ward won the Grand Prix. Riding Callas, he was a second faster than anyone else in the jump off, winning  in a time of 44.03 seconds.

This is the first international win for the 15-year-old mare and Ward, who have only been a combination since June last year. 

Filling third place was American rider Kent Farrington with Landan. Natalie Dean completed the American trio finishing in fourth place with Acota M. A time fault in the first round kept Irish rider Daniel Coyle and Gisborne VDL from the jump off.

The Florida venue has proved a fruitful venue for Irish riders this week. On Thursday Irish riders filled four places within the top ten in the 75,000 CHF 1.55m Ranking Class. Wexford's Bertram Allen won with class with the Irish Sport Horse Pacino Amiro. Down's Conor Swail partnered Count Me In to second place. Galway's Andrew Bourns and the Irish Sport Horse Sea Topblue were fifth and Darragh Kenny and Chic Chic were ninth. 

On Saturday evening, Jason Foley partnered the Irish Sport Horse Rockwell RC to victory in the CSI2* 1.45m Grand Prix in Gent, Belgium. The 9-year-old mare, bred by Ronan Byrne and owned by Sean Cubitt, is by Kannan (KWPN), out of Urban Sea (ISH) by Guidam (SF). 

This result comes on the back of two top ten finishes in the Under 25 competition in Amsterdam earlier this year. This combination also won a gold medal at the 5-year-old FEI/WBFSH World Breeding Jumping Championships for Young Horses, Lanaken, Belgium.