TIPPERARY’S Denis Lynch may not have repeated the five-star double he scored at last year’s Longines Global Champions League in Mexico City, but his efforts at the weekend fixture, the second round of the 2025 tour, put Lynch at the top of the current overall standings on 59 points, quite a margin ahead of next best, Edwina Tops-Alexander on 44. It is early days though, as there are 15 legs in total.

The Longines Global Champions Tour 1.60m Grand Prix on Sunday was a competitive affair, with 40 of the world’s best taking on a challenging track. Just nine succeeded in keeping all the poles intact in round one and only six managed to do so again in round two. Lynch and Vistogrand were among the first-round clears, but an unfortunate rub of a pole in the jump-off led to four faults in a time of 44.45 seconds, leaving them in eighth place. The class was won by an in-form Emanuele Camilli (ITA) on Chacco’s Girlstar (42.99).

Placings

The five-star Longines Global Champions Tour moved to Mexico City for its latest round, which ran from Thursday, March 27th until Sunday, March 30th. Thursday’s 1.45m two-phase class saw Lynch and King Blue jump double clear in a second phase time of 31.60 to place eighth.

From a start list of 54, there were 33 combinations who kept a clean sheet in the first round and proceeded to round two, with an impressive 22 of those completing double clears. The winning round came from French man Simon Delestre on Golden Boy DK in 29.30 – just over two seconds ahead of Lynch.

Meanwhile, in the day’s 1.45m speed class, the 10-year-old Irish Sport Horse gelding CBS Khantastic (Elvis Ter Putte (BWP) x Mrs Quinn (ISH) by Laughton’s Flight (ISH)), bred by Greg Broderick’s Ballypatrick Stables, was ridden into second place by Mexico’s Alberto Sanchez-Cozar

In Friday’s GCL second competition, a 1.60m speed class, Lynch and Vistogrand jumped clear in 79.45 to finish sixth. They were just over three and a half seconds off the pace of Italian winner Camilli on Chacco’s Girlstar (75.92), with Max Kuhner on the Irish Sport Horse gelding EIC Cooley Jump the Q a close second in 76.06.

The New York Empire team of Lynch and Michael Pender on HHS Los Angeles finished eighth of the 17 teams taking part.