Herein we report improved chemo- and enantioselective hydrogenations of 1-(2,2,4-trimethylquinolin-1(2H)-yl)ethan-1-one (1) toward (R)-1-(2,2,4-trimethyl-3,4-dihydroquinolin-1(2H)-yl)ethan-1-one (2) using well-defined novel Crabtree-type iridiumcomplexes.