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Friday, March 29, 2024

Ireland's Darragh Kenny won two at WEF, including the $137,000 Grand Prix

WELLINGTON, Fla.--Ireland's Darragh Kenny picked up his second win of the week on Great-Tikila J in the $137,000 Grand Prix CSI3* Sunday, March 21, having previously won the 1.50m Jumpers on Saturday on Vertige De Galarzacs,

Darragh Kenny on Great Tikila J SportfotDarragh Kenny on Great Tikila J (Photo by Sportfot)Of the 45 entries, 10 were clean over the course set by Michel Vaillancourt of Canada. with Mimi Gochman the first double-clear on Gigi’s Girl BH to eventually finish third in 41.38 seconds.

“I went super early, so I just really wanted to have a nice round,” said Gochman. “I was trying to go for it a little bit, but I didn’t want to make any big mistakes or make her unconfident in me because it was my first three-star grand prix, and I really just wanted to go double clear.”

Next to go in the jump-off, Hilary McNerney on Lovelight shaved nearly five seconds off the leading time with a clear round in 36.53 seconds to finish second.

“My horse is super competitive, so once I got the first line done, I was like, “Okay, here we go,’” said McNerney. “When I jumped out of ‘b’ of the double combination, I thought, ‘I’ve got to do five strides.’ My trainer Kent Farrington said, ‘You can’t do four, so all you have to do is kick and get the five.’ Once I got that, I took the risk to the second to last jump, and he was incredible and right there with me. It was a great feeling.”

 

THE ONLY other double clear of the day proved to be the best as Kenny finished in 35.24 seconds for the victory.

“I actually got very lucky in the jump-off, to be honest,” said Kenny. “I had planned to do the six strides like everybody did in the first line, then turned very tight back to the double, and she tried really hard. I had a hard rub on the back rail jumping out but got away with it, then I ended up doing six where Hilary had done five, so I thought, ‘Okay better run.’”

Kenny and his sponsors purchased the mare just over a year ago, and the win was even sweeter as it was also the first grand prix of her career.

“When we bought her, she was very green, having only jumped 1.30m, but she’s extremely talented,” he said. “She’s careful, scopey, brave, a little bit of a mare sometimes, but in the ring her ability is incredible. I was really happy with her because I aimed her for this week. She jumped clear in the WEF and then jumped super today and felt really good."

“We’ve developed her slowly,” Kenny said. “She’s a little bit temperamental sometimes where you have to take everything slow, so I played around with her on the grass a few other weeks, did some stuff at home, and then thought, ‘Okay, I have her in the right spot for this week.’”

"For me, it’s a horse that I stole from my trainer Kent Farrington,” said McNerney. “We did a lot of the shows on the grass Derby Field over at Equestrian Village during the summer because we stayed here because of COVID, and this result is very exciting. I’m hoping to move up and do the CSI4* during WEF 12 and see how that goes.”

“I have no experience at grand prix level, and my horse has all the experience,” said 16-year-old Gochman. “I think it kind of balances out, and we trust each other. She is a big-strided horse, scopey, big jump, and I kind of just have to stay with her and let her do her thing. I think being able to go double clear in a three-star makes me feel like I can do these bigger classes. Knowing that I’m strong enough at this point of WEF really helps boost my confidence for the future.”

 

KENNY rode Vertige De Galarzacsto win the $37,000, 1.50m Classic CSI3* on Saturday.

Darragh Kenny on Vertig De Galarzacs SportfotDarragh Kenny on Vertig De Galarzacs (Photo by Sportfot)Of 79 entries, just nine qualified for the jump-off.

First to return in the jump-off, Shane Sweetnam of Ireland on Ideal set the time to beat of 36.67 seconds.

Both Kenny and Martin Fuchs of Switzerland qualified two horses for the jump-off, and Fuchs posted the second clear jump-off round in 37.10 seconds.

After finishing on four faults with his first entry, Kenny capitalized on the luxury of multiple mounts, making adjustments according to how he felt the track rode, to win on Vertige De Galarzacs in 35.69 seconds.

“It made a big difference,” said Kenny of the advantage of already riding the jump-off course with his first mount. “With the first horse I did six strides up the first line thinking that maybe it would be too long to do five. I ended up too short to the next oxer and had the back rail, so with the second horse I did five strides up the first line and stayed a bit wider. It worked out better.”

In the end, the only three double-clear efforts of the day reigned supreme on the podium, as Sweetnam held on for the second-place finish while Fuchs landed in third.

For Kenny, the partnership with Vertige De Galarzacs, known as “Vince” in the barn, is fairly new, having acquired the ride from Karrie Rufer of Morning Star Sporthorses just four weeks ago.

“He’s a very talented horse,” said Kenny. “He has his own technique a little bit, but he wants to be very careful. He’s really, really scopey, and I think he’s going to be a really good horse. At the start, he didn’t know me, so we just took a week to get used to each other, but now it seems to be really good.

 

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