THE highlight of the Winter Equestrian Festival at Wellington International at the weekend was the five-star $500,000 Rolex Grand Prix on Saturday. Among the 39 starters, there were a significant seven Irish entries. Nine combinations jumped clear over the first-round track set by Brazilian course designer, Guilherme Jorge, including two of the Irish pairs, namely Offaly’s Darragh Kenny on VDL Cartello and Meath’s Cian O’Connor on Maurice.

Unfortunately, Kenny and O’Connor each had a fence down in the jump-off, with Kenny the fastest of the four-faulters to take sixth place in a time of 38.23 seconds. O’Connor’s time of 40.27 seconds secured ninth place.