Darragh Kenny shrugged off his short partnership with Chaccossini to take this afternoon’s London Horse Show showjumping class (Friday 20 December), the Christmas tree speed stakes.
The 12-year-old Chacco-Blue son, owned by Gospodarstwo Rolne Andrzej Oplatek, only joined the Irish rider a few weeks ago, having had a number of riders, and this is their second show together. The pair also won the ranking class at Sentower in Belgium on their first outing together.
“He’s a really cool horse. He’s fun, he’s easy to ride, he’s not complicated at all. So I’m really enjoying it,” said Darragh.
The format for this 1.50m class was that the best 10 pairs would go through to the second round, carrying any faults. It is a tricky one for riders to judge their tactics, particularly with an early draw, which Darragh had. He was eighth in of 31 starters and there had been two clears before him.
He explained: “When I went in the ring, it wasn’t jumping that well, so I thought, ‘Okay, I’ll make sure I jump clear.’ And then actually, I was quite worried I wasn’t going to make it into the second round. I didn’t do one turn to the last line that most people did and that left me quite slow. So then in the second round, I thought I’d better do the opposite.”
In the end, designers Bernardo Costa Cabral of Portugal and Ireland’s Colm Quinn judged the track perfectly and exactly 10 jumped clear to make the showdown.
Darragh was second to go and explained how he made up time to finish in 33.13sec: “Chaccossini has a huge stride, an absolutely massive, massive stride. So I could do one less in the first line, I could do one less across the middle – which basically nobody else could do – and I could do one less to the last. As well as that great big stride, he’s very careful and he’s very brave. So you can rely on him a lot.”
Two Whitakers followed Darragh in and came close – perennial London favourite John (Sharid) finished fourth in 34.82sec and his nephew Donald eventually claimed second in 34.56sec on Ulania 3.
Not all the chasing pack had their pedal to the metal, with other aims, while Dutch rider Mans Thijssen (Zeppelin Blue) and Germany’s Sophie Hinners (Vittorio 8) were thwarted by having the last down – and in the event, neither were fast enough to beat Darragh Kenny anyway in this London Horse Show showjumping class. Penultimate rider Lorenzo De Luca couldn’t quite best the Irishman either, but he slipped into eventual third for Italy on Promise Z in 34.65sec.
France’s Julien Gonin had piloted Diamant De Semilly mare Estrella De La Batia round in the fastest first-round time – the pair whisking across the ground despite the 10-year-old bay fighting at times – so the crowd expected a challenge in the final moments. But it was all over quickly when Julien knifed too tightly across the first, the Agria oxer, and it came down.
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