Nov 05,2024
Darragh Kenny was rewarded for a bold approach in Monterrey as he secured a maiden five-star Grand Prix for his double Olympic partner VDL Cartello, just weeks ahead of the 17-year-old's retirement from top-flight show jumping.
Kenny and his mount have been successful all around the world, individually and as part of the Irish team competing in Nations Cups, most recently being part of Michael Blake’s squad at the Olympics in Paris.
But a five-star Grand Prix had been missing from the stallion’s CV until Sunday, when the duo beat off some of the greats of the sport to land the GNP Seguros Grand Prix in Mexico.
VDL Cartello galloped to a blistering clear round in 36.27 seconds in an absorbing six-combo jump-off at the Club Hipico La Silla, where the first four home were separated by just a second.
Emanuele Camilli of Italy chased the Irish leaders hard but needed to find another .08 of a second with Odense Odeveld.
Third went to Britain's Sameh El Dahan, riding WKD Aimez Moi, with Germany's Christian Ahlmann and Dourkhan Hero Z fourth.
Shane Sweetnam and RR Combella secured a top-10 finish in eighth but the dual Olympian from Cork missed out on the jump-off due to an unlucky time fault.
Reflecting on VDL Cartello's success, Kenny said: "He made so many of my dreams come true at high levels, so to win a five-star grand prix on him towards the end of his career is very cool. He's been an incredible horse for me, and honestly, it’s been nothing but fun.
"Somehow we’ve always missed out on a five-star grand prix win, so I thought I’d risk everything to see what could happened and I honestly have never gone this fast with him. He's a super-brave horse, so I could take a risk one to two doing the seven. I went as fast as I could to the oxer and took another risk to the wall. He had a little touch there, but it stayed up.
"I’ve always wanted to win this grand prix, and to be able to do it with this horse in this moment is pretty special."
There was good news too for Conor Swail, as the Down man’s sixth place with My Lady Lavista moved him above Kent Farrington of the United States to the top of the individual standings at the end of the seventh leg of the lucrative Major League Show Jumping series.
Earlier in the day, Sligo native Richard Howley took five-star honours with Mansini Ltd, having contributed one time fault from two rounds on Zodiak Du Buisson Z the night before to help the Roadrunners win the team event, for which they are the overall leaders.
