WELLINGTON, Fla.--Darragh Kenny of Ireland on Sligo Balou Boy won the $73,000 WEF Challenge Cup Round 9 CSI5* in a class dominated by the Irish on Thursday, March 11 at the Winter Equestrian Festival.
As a qualifier for the $401,000 Grand Prix CSI5* on Saturday night, the Challenge Cup drew 53 entries to compete over a course designed by Alan Wade of Ireland.
Kenny, ranked ninth in the world, was 47th to go in the starting order, going clean in the opening round, the last of 14 to go clean.
With 10 electing to return for the jump-off, Kenny was last to return and had the fastest time, clean in 33.75 seconds.
“I just knew that I had to go fast and try to leave the jumps up,” said Kenny. “I think the ‘nothing to lose’ part is nice when you go last in the order. You just go in thinking that if you want to try to win, you just have to leave it all out there and if it comes off, it comes off, and if it doesn’t, it doesn’t.”
The Irish swept the top three ribbons, with Michael Duffy on Jeff Ten Halven clean in 34.90 seconds for second, and Paul O’Shea on Chancelloress placing third in 35.40 seconds.
THE IRISH didn’t stop there, as Shane Sweetnam and Cian O’Connor rounded out the top five finishers.
Sweetnam was fourth in 35.87 seconds on Alejandro and O’Connor on Kilkenny was fifth in 36.24 seconds.
Kenny, the top ranked Irishman in the world at number nine, won on a horse he does not know well, as he only acquired the gelding two weeks ago.
“I rode him week seven and did two 1.40m classes and then this week, I jumped the ranking class Wednesday,” said Kenny. “It wasn’t even the plan to jump him today, and then the plan changed a little bit. I didn’t really know what he was going to do, but he’s an incredible horse. He is really, really careful and really scopey. He’s an amazing horse.”
“I’m not sure right now,” said Kenny regarding whether or not he’ll give the new gelding a shot under the lights on Saturday night. “He didn’t start jumping until he was 7, so he’s still green even though he’s 12. I don’t know if I’m going to jump him on Saturday night or not, but every day he’s gotten better, more comfortable, and more confident. I really like the horse.”
And there was good news as there is still no herpes at WEF.
Equestrian Sport Productions management announced that there has been a negative test result for Equine Herpes Virus on Wednesday, March 10, on a horse that was restricted from entering the FEI compound at the Palm Beach International Equestrian Center show grounds for the Winter Equestrian Festival.
The horse was tested on its private farm using a rapid result test by its personal veterinarian on Tuesday, March 9, after it presented with a fever.
The horse was not on PBIEC property.
Thanks to the biosecurity protocols put in place at PBIEC by ESP, “Horse A” was found at pre-check before entering the show grounds to have a fever of 103.
The horse was not allowed access to FEI stabling and sent back to its home stable where it has been isolated.