Denis Lynch sccops 100,000 Euro Grand Prix in Qatar
Eventually, five riders remained for the jump-off to determine who would be
the winner of the first leg of the Global Champions Tour, presented by CN and CN WorldWide.
The jump-off course invited riders to ride fast and at several places, a sharp turn could be made. The Eire Denis Lynch won, riding Lantinus 3. He was half a second faster than German Alois Pollmann-Schweckhorst with Lord Luis. The third place was for Steve Guerdat with Jalisca Solier.
Olaf Petersen, the course designer had put up a course4 during the first round that appealed to rider and horse. In the final line, on the diameter of the round arena, there were five fences. That line caused many problems.
The first fence was an upright jump, followed by the first of a triple at 20 meters. After that was an upright jump where you needed to take the horse back. Whereas the final fence of the triple was yet again an upright fence that needed to be ridden with temperament. The final fence was 25 meters from the last fence of the triple. The most remarkable was that many combinations that were favorites from the beginning, did not make it into the top 18. Meredith Michaels-Beerbaum retired with Checkmate after having 3 fences down and Jos Lansink with Spender S did the same. Also Butterfly Flip with Malin Baryard-Johnsson did not finish. Marcus Ehning, who was winner of the world cup qualification round at Indoor Brabant, did not place himself with Sandro Boy. Neither did Ludger Beerbaum with All
Inclusive NRW. At the end of the first round, it appeared that nine combinations remained without penalty points.
In the second round, the jumping capability of the horses was put to the test and it appeared as if the course of Petersen was not hard. Many combinations that had penalty points in the first round, remained without in the second. But when the horses that remained without penalty points in the first round started their second round, you could count numerous droppings. Albert Zoer with Okidoki, Thomas Frühmann with The Sixth Sense, Jessica Kürten with Castle Libertina Forbes and Edwina Alexander with Isovlas Itôt du Château misted the jump-off because of mistakes in the second round.
In that jump-off, Judy Ann Melchior with Aktion Pur Z started. The amazone rode her jump-off with ease and seemed happy with her ride. She ended up fourth. She let behind Jeroen Dubbeldam that was the only one of five riders in the jump-off that made a mistake. From the first meter on, Dubbeldam asked a high pace from BMC Up and Down. On the second fence, the mighty CN oxer, the chestnut touched the hind pole of the fence, that fell immediately. “I knew by then, that it was over and that all concentration was lost. Normally I would have taken the turn a little wider and maybe forced a little bit more, and it would have gone good”, so says Dubbeldam.
Denis Lynch was the second starter and asked a high pace from Lantinus 3.
“I wanted to ride fast but not as an idiot and it worked”, so says the 31 year old Eire. His sponsor Flaminia Straumann bought the horse last in October from Stal Tops in Valkenswaard. “I knew for a long time that this was a fantastic horse, and have known it since Gregory Wathelet used to ride it. It is a horse with unknown moyennes and very nice gallopings. That was very good for this evening”, so says the happy and satisfied Lynch.
Steve Guerdat rode a good course with Solisca Solier but had a minor stop between the fore last and last fence. But that was not what the Swiss blamed himself for. “I should just have ridden a faster course because Lynch was not that fast”, so says Guerdat that landed third with €40,000 of prize money. Between Lynch and Guerdat was Alois Pollmann-Schweckhorst with Lord Luis. “Lord Luis is a horse that does not gallop much by itself, but can turn very fast”, so says Pollmann-Schweckhorst. The combination proved this by turning in front of the double and to ride from an almost impossible angle. He ended up second.
The prize giving ceremony of the 3 winners was given an extra special touch by dressing them as Arabic people and let them ride camels. Pollmann-Schweckhorst could not say nothing, which made him say that the 3 of them would probably have been faster on the camels than with the horses, but they would have had to remove all fences from the arena.
Results (12/04/08)
Grand Prix Qatar
1ª Leg of the Global Champions Tour
Two Rounds ((FEI Art. 273.3.1, 1m60)
1º. LANTINUS 3 / Denis LYNCH (IRL) / 0 / 0 / 0 – 49.49
2º. LORD LUIS / A POLLMAN-SCHWECKHORST (GER) / 0 / 0 / 0 – 49.95
3º. JALISCA SOLIERB / Steve GUERDAT (SUI) / 0 / 0 / 0 – 50.69
4º. AKTION PUR Z / Judy Ann MELCHIOR (BEL) / 0 / 0 / 0 – 59.76
5º. BMC UP AND DOWN / Jeroen DUBBELDAM (NED) / 0 / 0 / 8 – 51.18
6º. OBELIX HRH Prince / A. BIN METAB AL SAUD (KSA) / 1/ 1 – 90.33
7º. SUZIE QUATTRO / Luciana DINIZ (POR) / 4 / 0 – 78.00
8º. LORENZO 208 / Christian AHLMANN (GER) / 4 / 0 – 79.94
9º. VDL GROEP FLECHE ROUGE Leopold VAN ASTEN (NED) / 4 / 0 – 80.09
10º. OKIDOKI / Albert ZOER (NED) / 0 / 4 – 80.68