DENIS Lynch made his attendance at Peelbergen Equestrian Centre in Kronenberg, The Netherlands worthwhile again at the weekend when winning the two-star Big Tour 1.45m Grand Prix qualifier on Thursday on board the 10-year-old stallion King Blue. Lynch had won the two-star Grand Prix at the venue the previous week with Cornets Iberio.

There were 85 participants on Thursday’s start list, 21 of whom jumped clear in round one and booked their place in the jump-off. Twelve of these combinations completed double clear rounds, with Lynch being the fastest of these, to take the win in a time of 38.78 seconds – more than a second ahead of Brazilian runner-up Marlon Modolo Zanotelli on Firefox Gem, who stopped the clock in 40.03.

Thursday’s one-star Big Tour 1.30m two-phase class saw 70 on the start list, with Shane O’Meara on Harvard placing 10th with a double clear in a phase two time of 29.02. The win went to Sweden’s Alma Ranebo on Karinda-S (26.26).

On Friday, Lynch took another top 10 placing in the two-star Big Tour 1.45m Grand Prix qualifier, when jumping clear with the nine-year-old stallion Chicago in 66.00 to claim ninth place.

Lynch then won the one-star Big Tour 1.30m class on Katja, a 10-year-old mare, on whom he jumped clear in 61.96 to beat the other 85 participants in the class.

The one-star 1.35m jump-off class for two-star riders on Saturday saw Emma O’Dwyer on Rubetski take joint sixth place, when they completed the jump-off in exactly the same time as Germany’s Marcus Ehning on For George to share sixth place. Meanwhile, O’Meara rode Harvard into fifth place in the day’s one-star 1.35m jump-off class for one-star riders.

O’Dwyer rode Dougie Drea into eighth place in their 52-strong division of the two-star Small Tour 1.40m special. The pair were 15th overall of the 102 entrants.

Busto Arsizio

Meanwhile, at the three-star show at Busto Arsizio in Italy, Louth’s Mark McAuley finished on the podium in Saturday’s Seven-year-old jump-off class when third with Sorrento Van Sappenleen, jumping clear in 34.53. They were just off the pace of class winner Giulia Martinengo Marquet (ITA) on Fulminus who stopped the clock in 32.4. Germany’s Elizabeth Meyer slotted into second with Imalaya of the Forests (32.76).

McAuley rode Night Fury into ninth place in the day’s three-star 1.45m two-phase class, after jumping clear in a time of 36 seconds, while Sean Ruth rode Bleu into eighth place in the one-star 1.10m class when clear in 77.65.