Darragh Kenny had the Irish colours flying today at the Winter Equestrian Festival in Wellington, Florida when topping the $35,000 Ruby et Violette Challenge Cup class.

Riding Gasper van den Doorn, Kenny had two seconds to spare over USA’s Marilyn Little and Clearwater after an eight-way jump-off.

“I did a turn that nobody else did,” Kenny said. “He is such a nice horse that I know he is never going to stop or do anything wrong so it was only up to me to get the right distance.”

Gasper van den Doorn is owned by Kenny’s student Teddy Vlock, who purchased the horse from Canadian Mac Cone. “I was just playing about with him for a couple of weeks just trying to get to know him a little bit for Teddy,” said Kenny.

“I am now very lucky that Teddy has agreed to let me show him for a few more weeks because I am a little bit short of a Grand Prix horse.”

The pairing will appear in Saturday’s CSI3* Horseware Ireland Grand Prix at the venue.

American, Jimmy Torano took third in today’s event with Betagravin.

Mike Dunne

(Sportsfot photo: Darragh Kenny and Gasper van den Doorn)