Darragh Kenny’s Winning WEF Mount Red Star D’Argent Sold to Saudi Arabia’s Abdullah Al Sharbatly

Darragh Kenny and Red Star d’Argent jumping to the win in the $216,000 CSIO4* Lugano Diamonds Grand Prix at WEF Week 8

After Red Star d’Argent’s sensational winter campaign with Ireland’s Darragh Kenny in the irons, the 11-year-old Selle Francais gelding’s owners have sold the talented horse (Quickstar x Jalisco B) to Saudi Arabian rider Abdullah Al Sharbatly. The purchase transaction was finalized in advance of the $130,000 Engel & Volkers CSI4* Grand Prix at Week 11 of the Winter Equestrian Festival, resulting in the scratch of the pair that won the week’s grand prix qualifier, the $35,000 Ruby et Violette WEF Challenge Cup, Round XI.

In addition to the Week 11 win, Kenny piloted his former mount to two major, grand prix victories during the winter circuit: the $130,000 CSI3* Grand Prix during Week 6 and the $216,000 CSIO4* Lugano Diamonds Grand Prix during Week 8.

“It was great for me to have the horse; it was amazing,” Kenny said from the sideline’s of Saturday night’s grand prix class. “I’m happy for Abdullah to get the horse. I would have loved to have kept the horse. But at the end of the day, the business that we are in is to train the horses and to sell them, and that was the idea with this horse—myself and Sergio had an agreement.”

Kenny’s Oakland Ventures owned Red Star d’Argent in partnership with Spain’s Sergio Alvarez Moya. The Irish rider picked up the ride when Moya sent him the horse as a winter sales project, in advance of 2016 WEF.

“He’s a super horse,” Kenny added. “I was happy to have the horse at the time. He was so, so good. I kind of wanted to have him tonight [in Week 11’s CSI4* Grand Prix], but I understand the position [that we’re all in.]”

Red Star d’Argent will soon depart to the stables of Al Sharbatly, who won team bronze at the 2012 London Olympics. The Saudi Arabian rider also won individual silver at the 2010 FEI World Equestrian Games.