TIPPERARY’s Denis Lynch jumped up to equal fourth place in the Western European League of the FEI Longines World Cup when finishing fourth in the seventh leg at La Coruna, Spain last Sunday.
Riding Thomas Straumann’s brilliant stallion All Star 5 (Argentinus x Alme), Lynch was one of eight riders to jump clear in the opening round to make it through the the jumo-off, where eight different nations took part.
Spain’s home favourite Fernandez Saro produced the first clear of the jump-off when third to go, but his time of 43.89 seconds always looked beatable. Lynch was fifth to go against the clock and 14-year-old stallion didn’t look like beating the time but pinged around fault free in 45.77.
Australian wonderwoman Edwina Tops-Alexander was next to go with the lovely California (L’Esprit x Libero H), and she scorched to victory when taking all the tight turns over Santiago Varela’s track breaking the beam in 40.08 seconds.
Austria’s Max Kuhner was the penultimate rider and trailed Tops-Alexander by more than two seconds with his fabulous grey stallion Chardonnay 79 (Clarimo x Corrado I), to clinch the runner-up spot.
The danger was still alive for Tops-Alexander when Dutchman Maikel van der Vleuten was last to go, but he picked up four faults to slip down the leaderboard.
“California has been jumping great, but here and there we kept having stupid faults and I was getting a bit mad! I was determined to have a good class here yesterday, but it didn’t work. Today I did my best and it DID work, so now I’m really happy!” Tops-Alexander said afterwards.
She added: “I did one too many strides from (fence) one to (fence) two, but that just made me go faster the rest of the way! I wasn’t convinced I was quick enough to win, I thought maybe I’d be second if I was lucky!”
Tipperary’s Shane Breen was also in action at the Spanish venue and he finished fourth in Sunday’s 1.45m with Ipswich van de Wolfsakker (Glock’s London NOP x Quick Star) when posting a clear round in 30.36 seconds. Victory went to Italy’s Emanuele Gaudiano and Carlotta 232 (0/0 28.23).
Breen finished sixth in Friday’s 1.50m jump-off with the Breen Equestrian and Jos Lansink-owned nine-year-old stallion with a second clear round against the clock in 27.96 seconds.
IRISH-BRED
The Irish-bred Suma’s Zorro (by Ard Vdl Douglas) won Saturday night’s Longines Grand Prix under Egypt’s Sameh El Dahan. Owned by El Dahan and Antrim show jumper Joanne Sloan-Allen, the 13-year-old mare was one of just three horses to make it through to the timed round, where the combination posted the fastest time of 33.61 seconds to collect close to €90,000.
Sloan-Allen was also in the ribbons when she finished fourth in Sunday’s two-star 1.30m class with Wicked Hope (Valentino x Calypso II), producing a second round clear in a time of 29.95 seconds.