OFFALY’S Darragh Kenny rounded off an incredible weekend at the Global Champions Tour in Shanghai, China, with a win in last Saturday’s third round of the Global Champions League when partnering with American rider Jack Hardin Towell for the Paris Panthers.
Kenny had already picked up a win at the five-star show, in Friday’s 1.55m, which doubled up as the opening round of the team competition, aboard Kerry McCahill’s Charly Chaplin S (Harley Vdl x Burggraaf). Breaking the beam in 38.87, Kenny was the fastest of a star studded 11 double clear rounds to collect €51,000.
The Cruising-sired Mic Mac du Tillard was in second with Germany’s David Will on board, clear in 39.10, ahead of young Dutchman Jos Verloy and Caracas (0/0 39.82).
In Saturday’s final round, Kenny and Towell stole the show, both jumping clear with the fastest combined total of 155.99 seconds. Kenny once again guided Charly Chaplin S to a clear round in 77.81.
With a different mount to the first round, Towel also jumped clear with Lucifer V and Paris Panthers’ combined time saw them finish six seconds ahead of the Hamburg Diamonds duo of John Whitaker and Jos Verloy, the only other combination to finish on a zero score.
Third place on the podium went to the London Knights, after Ben Maher and Kent Farrington teamed up once more, with both riders jumping clear but carrying through four faults from the previous round.
The St Tropez Pirates team of Julien Epaillard and Simon Delestre picked up an agonising 12 faults in the second round to tumble from pole position overnight to eighth overall.
DELIGHTED
Speaking afterwards, a delighted Darragh Kenny said: “It was a really good win, we are really, really happy about it. We had a bit of a plan to come here and try and do well and it really paid off.
“It has been a very successful weekend for me, he (Charly Chaplin) is an incredible horse and it was great for us to win the team event. We had a strong chance to do well and were very positive about it. Hardin (Towell) had two different horses and it was a really fun competition.”
Bertram Allen’s Valkenswaard United hold onto top spot on the league table after Marcus Ehning and Alberto Zorzi put in another strong performance, with the German rider jumping clear in his GCL debut. Sitting on 74 points overall, the team are just six points ahead of the London Knights, who are a further eight points away from the St Tropez Pirates.
Darragh Kenny also finished in the prizes in the Global Champions Tour Grand Prix. He lowered a single fence in the first round with Charly Chaplin S to finish in seventh place overall behind Italian winner Lorenzo de Luca riding Ensor de Litrange.
Just four combinations managed to keep a clean sheet in the first round of the 1.60m Grand Prix. Second to go against the clock, de Luca set off at pace with the big striding 13-year-old gelding to break the beam in 38.05 seconds, collecting a massive pot of €165,000 for his victory.
The Netherlands’ Maikel van der Vleuten was the only other rider to produce a double clear for the runner-up position with VDL Groep Verdi TN N.O.P. (0/0 39.36).
De Luca is now at the head of the leader board on 100 points after three rounds of the GCT. The tour now moves to round four in Madrid, where the first of the European legs get underway.