OFFALY-born Darragh Kenny took the honours at last night's (Thursday) WEF Challenge Cup competition at the Palm Beach showgrounds in Wellington, Florida, riding the Irish-bred 'Gael Force'.

The 23 year-old, who is now US-based, piloted Missy Clark's Cavalier Royale gelding through to a ten-horse jump-off, and beat off a strong American challenge from Brianne Goutal to win the 9,000 dollar first prize by leaving out a stride when navigating the last line of jumps.

Afterwards he said: "The horse jumped great; he jumped both rounds fantastic and he has always been a great horse for me. It was a good track and I knew Brianne was really fast. I knew that there was really no way that I could catch her other than to do my crazy five strides down the last line. It worked out for me at the time, but it was lucky."

Ireland's other competitor in the Challenge Cup, Shane Sweetnam, had an unfortunate two fences down in the jump-off with 'Amaretto Darco' and finished eighth overall.

Wellington's Grand Prix takes place on Saturday night.

Darragh Kenny and Gael Force at Wellington yesterday