Irish Riders Impress in France, Italy and Belgium
Colin McClelland, Horse Sport Ireland
TIPPERARY-born Denis Lynch collected several top five places at the prestigious five-star show in Paris, France this weekend, but failed to make a dent in Sunday’s 200,000 euro Grand Prix when he faulted once in the first round on Abbervail van het Dingeshof.
With Thomas Straumann’s gelding Lantinus, the Irish rider had a third place in Sunday’s Two Phase competition, losing out by just a fifth of a second to Ukraine’s Katharina Offel and Cathleen in a seven horse jump-off, with the USA’s Kent Farrington and Blue Angel taking the runner-up spot.
Lynch also managed to chalk up two top ten places in Saturday’s 1m50 speed competition, claiming fifth on board Abbervail van het Dingeshof and eighth with Lantinus. The class was won by Germany’s Hans-Dieter Dreher and the stallion Embassy II.
Mayo’s Alex Duffy and Wexford-born Betram Allen did well in the Under-25 section of the Paris show, with Allen and the grey mare Molly Malone V winning Saturday’s 1m45 class and Duffy with the gelding Living The Dream placing fifth. The same combinations took part in Sunday’s team competition, finishing third of ten countries taking part, with France claiming the laurels.
Allen and the mare were also runners-up in Friday’s two phase class, with Duffy and Living the Dream in seventh.
Today another Tipperary rider, Thomas Ryan, took fifth place and almost 3,000 euro in the three star Grand Prix at Gorla Minore in Italy, riding the Irish Sport Horse Cruise on Clover, with Germany’s Marc Bettinger cliaming his third victory of the show, this time riding Zydoctro vd Kapel to a 10,000 euro win.
On Friday Shane Breen kept up Tipperary’s strike rate when he recorded Ireland’s only major senior show jumping win of the weekend, when finishing first in the Grand Prix Qualifier at three-star Lummen in Belgium on the stallion Balloon, collecting almost 6,000 euro in prize money.
Category: News, Show Jumping
