WELLINGTON, Fla.--Irish Olympian Darragh Kenny on his European Championships mount Eddy Blue won in the $500,000, CSI5* Grand Prix on Saturday evening, March 7 at the Winter Equestrian Festival.

Darragh Kenny on Eddy Blue (Photo by Sportfot)Kenny, who had never before won a grand prix at WEF, won over a field that included six of the world’s top 10.

From a field of 41, nine went clean over the course set by Alan Wade of Ireland, who will be the course designer for the 2028 Olympic Games in Los Angeles.

First to go in the jump-off, Marilyn Little on La Contessa set the time to beat at 41.92 seconds.

Then six rounds later, there was a very unusual dead heat - there was suddenly a tie for the lead as Australian Thaisa Erwin on her Paris Olympic mount Hialita B matched Little’s time exactly.

Little and Erwin eventually shared second place on the podium.

Kenny, going second to last, used Eddy Blue’s big step to leave out a stride from one to two and finish in an uncatchable 41.77 seconds.

 

“HE'S BEEN second and third here and placed in a lot of five-stars, but to finally win one here is really deserving for the horse, he’s an incredible athlete,” said Kenny, who won the FEI World Cup of London with Eddy Blue in 2024. “He tries so hard every time he goes in the ring, and I am really proud of him and how he competed tonight.”

Marilyn Little on La Contessa (Photo by Sportfot)“Eddy Blue is a very careful horse, so I can take a bit of risk with him," said Kenny. "The relief of winning tonight was quite big."

“He’s a championship-type horse because he wants to leave the jumps up every day,” he said, adding that his goal is to be named to the Irish team for the FEI World Championship in Aachen in August.

The Grand Prix was the first five-star grand prix top three finish for Little and La Contessa, but they have been clean in their last five five-star grands prix together.

“My goal for this season was to position Contessa as a real competitor at the five-star level and show what she can do,” said Little, who was most recently part of the winning U.S. Nations Cup team in Wellington. “For her to come out and put in another performance like tonight against this group and a course designer with the technicality and the size that Alan Wade built is a big deal. She doesn’t have the biggest stride, but she’s smarter than almost any horse I know. She’s probably smarter than most people that I know."

“I would have loved to have not gone first,” said Little. “When you’re going first with a group of riders like this, all you can do is the best you can do.”

Since 2010, an Australian rider has not finished on a five-star grand prix podium at WEF.

“I’m grateful to break the long streak of no Australians here, and I hope this is the first of many,” said Erwin. “She is a difficult horse to manage on the ground and to ride, and I’ve taken a lot of time. Luckily, she has taught me a ton of patience, because you need that to be around her. But she gives me her heart every time.”

“When I saw the time, I thought it must have been an error, but grateful that we could be here on the podium,” Erwin said.

Laura Kraut on Bisquetta was fifth, clean in 42.91, Jonathan McCrea on Chaccotilino PS was fifth, clean in 44.99, and Andre Thieme of Germany on DSP Chakaria was the fastest of the four=faulters to place sixth in 43.25.

During the day on Saturday, for Israel’s Sydney Shulman Desiderio on Max van de Marijenhoeve won the $62,500, CSI2* Grand Prix.

“I’ve never sat on a horse that oozed so much confidence,” said Shulman Desiderio. “He felt like so much quality from the beginning. Even though he was quite green, he still felt like he knew what to do.”

Max van de Marijenhoeve joined Shulman Desiderio’s string as a 7-year-old, but soon returned to the horse’s previous owner, David Blake, to campaign while she had her second child.

“I think he showed him three times as an 8-year-old, so really, he’s quite green,” said Shulman Desiderio, who also won the two-star qualifier on Thursday.

“I came back to riding in November, and we’ve been using every class to build and develop," she said.."On Thursday, we decided it was time to see what we’ve got, and he was unbelievable. That was the first time he’s been asked all the questions and answered nicely.

“I was unsure what I was going to have today after going so fast,” said Desiderio Shulman, who manages Back Country Farm in Greenwich, CT, along with her mother. “He’s a trier and a pleaser. Anything I ask, he wants to do right, even if he doesn’t know what he’s doing.”

Vasco Flores of Puerto Rico on Pas Normal 'V' was second, and Caroline Mawhinney finished third on Hallilea.