IRISH connections certainly made an impression as the first week of the Winter Equestrian Festival (WEF) kicked off in Wellington, Florida. One of the highlights of the weekend was when Offaly’s Darragh Kenny won the $32,000 three-star 1.50m Classic riding Chaccossini, in a class which saw five Irish in the top 10.

Kenny was best of the 40 starters, jumping double clear in a jump-off time of 32.16 seconds. There were just six double clears in the class, with Tom Wachman on Do It Easy among them - they placed fifth (34.75). Simon McCarthy on Gotcha came seventh with four faults in 33.8; Kenny on his other mount Zero K placed eighth with four faults in 34.44 and O’Connor on Belvedere was 10th with four faults in 36.02.