Lynch Takes Biggest Prize of Doha Grand Prix Weekend
DENIS Lynch collected Ireland’s biggest individual pay cheque this weekend when finishing second in the five-star Doha Grand Prix on Saturday night for a reward of 130,000 euro.
The Tipperary rider, piloting Thomas Straumann’s bay stallion All Star 5, joined a six-strong jump-off in Qatar after the starting field of 38 was severely whittled down by the first two demanding rounds. However, Lynch could not match the final scorching round of Netherlands rider Gerco Schroder with the Nabab de Reve stallion London, who stopped the clock with a more than comfortable three seconds in hand to pocket the 214,000 euro winner’s prize.
In the weekend’s other five-star Grand Prix at Wellington in Florida, a strong Irish contingent struggled to leave all fences standing on fellow-countryman Alan Wade’s opening round course late on Saturday night, with only Co. Down’s Conor Swail managing zero faults aboard the stallion Lansdowne. Swail dropped two fences in the jump-off, however, to finish 10th with a 10,000 dollar share of the half-million-dollar prize fund.
Victory at Wellington and a 165,000 dollar share of the fund went to Brazil’s Alvaro de Miranda and the 13 year-old Westphalian gelding Ad Rahmannshof’s Bogeno, who triumphed in the closely fought ten horse jump-off.
Category: News, Show Jumping
