Special guest in town for Darragh Kenny at Saturday Night Lights
Darragh Kenny and Irwin will be going for the second win of the week at the Winter Equestrian Festival’s Saturday Night Lights and there will be a special guest watching the show.
Eva Castagren, from Sweden and more recently Virginia, is 83 years old and has been an owner of two of Darragh’s horses for three years. When Darragh and Irwin won the $32,000 CSI3* WEF Challenge Cup Round 1 during week one of the Winter Equestrian Festival, Eva was there to witness it – the first time she has seen either of her horses jump live.
“She owns two horses for me and she’s never seen them. This is the first time,” said Darragh after leading the field of 72 in the Challenge, winning the jump off by more than a second. “She only saw him [Irwin] on the TV before. So I wanted to try and win to make it exciting for her. She’s a great owner and she’s been a great supporter of me for years.”
Darragh has had his eye on Irwin, an 11-year old Dutch Warmblood stallion, for some time. “I always liked the horse,” the Irish Olympian said. “I saw the horse when he was 7 and I loved him. I’m very lucky my owner Eva agreed to buy him and he’s been incredible ever since.”
Irwin was acquired in the middle of the summer in Denmark, where he was jumping with Danish rider Emil Hallundbaek. “The horse just keeps getting better and better,” said Darragh. “When we bought him he still was very green but he just feels like an incredible horse – he’s scopey, he’s careful, he’s brave, he’s super rideable – I’m just very lucky to have him.”
Eva tries to watch the sport as much as possible, according to Darragh, but for her winning is a bonus. “In the end she only cares about her horses being happy,” Darragh said. “That’s the most important thing to her. She’s delighted if they do win but it really doesn’t matter to her.”
Irwin will have a respite after Saturday night’s $140,000 CSI3* Grand Prix at Wellington International. He will be brought back for two five-star weeks and will possibly head to Riyadh, Saudi Arabia for the FEI World Cup Finals.
Having Eva present for Saturday Night Lights will not change the game plan for Darragh and Irwin who are last to go of the 46 entries. “I’m always trying to win whether the owner’s there or not, but it’s just nice she was there [for the WEF Challenge Cup win],” he said. “To have a fantastic horse like this for both of us is brilliant.”
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