THERE was great excitement over the weekend, as Rabat, Morocco, hosted the 15th and final leg of this year’s Longines Global Champions Tour.

Galway’s Michael Duffy rode Quirex, a 15-year-old gelding previously ridden by Cameron Hanley, to a clear round in Friday’s 1.55m Global Champions League class, which helped his team, the Rome Gladiators, to secure first place in the round. The team finished in sixth place overall and secured a prize of €430,000.

Sunday’s five-star 1.60m Longines Global Champions Tour Grand Prix saw a fourth-place finish for Tipperary’s Denis Lynch on the 15-year-old gelding Brooklyn Heights, when they were among just seven of the 38 starters to keep all the poles intact in round one. Just four of these were able to repeat the feat second time out, with Lynch’s time of 39.47 seconds missing out on a podium place this time, but taking home a nice prize of €50,000 for fourth place. The class was won by Spain’s Eduardo Alvarez Aznar on Rokfeller de Pleville Bois Margot with a speedy clear in 36.96.

Lynch was the highest placed Irishman in the final overall standings in the Longines Global Champions Tour, finishing in 18th place. Lynch was followed by Mark McAuley in 21st; Michael Pender in 26th and Michael Duffy in 29th.

Placings

Duffy also took a 10th place with Calypso de Beaufour in the 1.55m jump-off class on Saturday, when they were among the 15 of the 38 starters to jump clear in the first round, but incurred an unfortunate four faults in the jump-off.

In Sunday’s 1.45m Speed class, Eoin McMahon took sixth place on Zidan 10 with a clear round in 64.79 seconds. The class was won by Julien Epaillard (FRA) on Dubai de Soie in a very fast time of 57.02.