DARRAGH Kenny landed his second win of the week at the London Olympia Horse Show and Ireland’s fifth when he raced to victory in Friday evening’s Christmas Cracker on Ann Thompson’s exciting prospect Classic Dream.

Kenny was the fastest rider in a thrilling eight-man jump-off aboard the nine-year-old, beating The Netherlands’ Bart Bles on Gin D by 1.27 seconds. Britain’s William Whitaker’s great show continued with equal third place on RMF Echo with Austria’s Max Kühner on Cornet Kalua, ahead of British young rider Harry Charles, who put up a spirited challenge on Borsato, but had a fence down and finished fifth.

Earlier this year, Kenny was third on Classic Dream behind Ben Maher and Explosion W at the London leg of the Global Champions Tour; this was no mean achievement and his rider admits that he is quietly excited about the chestnut gelding’s prospects.

“I’ve known for a couple of years that he was a proper Grand Prix horse. He’s still quite green, but he was exceptional in this jump-off, really picking up, and he’s a horse for the future. He seems to like London anyway!” Kenny said.

He admitted that he has high hopes for the gelding. “I know him inside out and have always thought that he’s a Tokyo horse. He’s a little bit quirky, but he always wants to win.”

Kenny got his campaign underway at the central London venue when winning the 1.55m Santa Stakes with Ann Thompson’s Important de Muze on Wednesday.

The first of the 10 riders through to the jump-off was Britain’s Holly Smith with her European team bronze medal-winning horse Heart’s Destiny who set the pace with a clear round in a time of 35.29 seconds.

William Whitaker followed with a smooth and speedy clear in a time of 34.45, putting the pressure on those to follow, but an exceptionally tight turn to the penultimate fence gave Kenny the advantage at the half-way stage. Those that followed valiantly tried to catch him but picked up faults on the way giving him the victory for the second successive year.

Speaking after the class, Kenny said: “I really like coming here every year, the crowd are always amazing and to start off with a win is really nice. I didn’t get to see William’s round but I know my horse is quite careful and just went as fast as I could, which proved good enough today.”