Irish riders take three top five places in Florida

A STRONG Irish duo left their mark on tonight’s (Sunday) feature class at the Winter Equestrian Festival in Florida, taking one third and two joint fourth places from a starting field of 60.

Once again Offaly’s Darragh Kenny piloted two horses into the top five, claiming a third place on the Irish Sport Horse Gatsby and a fourth with the gelding Picolo. Co. Down-born Conor Swail and the mare Martha Louise shared fourth place tonight with Kenny, both combinations finishing on a time of 38.47 seconds in the final round.

On Friday night Kenny won the 1m45 speed class at Wellington’s Palm Beach Equestrian Centre with Picolo, and also took the runner-up spot with Gatsby. Swail had featured on Friday as well, claiming fourth place on Grand Cru vd JIJF Eiken.

Tonight Kenny was seventh to go in the big 20 horse jump-off with the talented grey stallion Gatsby, and held onto pole position until they were eventually overtaken by the USA’s Todd Minikus on Quality Girl and the eventual winner, American Olympic team gold medallist McLain Ward with HH Carlos Z.

The Offaly rider collected almost 15,000 euro for his two top five places, while Swail took home 5,000 euro. US winner Ward received 20,000 euro.

Darragh Kenny and Gatsby (ISH)