Lynch touched off in Leipzig

Denis Lynch came close to driving away in a Volkswagen Passat at the World Cup show in Leipzig, Germany, at the weekend, only to be denied by the acceleration of Christian Ahlmann.

The Tipperary rider was among 17 to make the timed round from 52 starters, going on to produce a cracking performance with Thomas Straumann’s bay gelding Abbervail van het Dingeshof.

His clear in 37.95 seconds looked unbeatable, as a string of rivals each lowered a single fence, until German Ahlmann and the grey gelding Aragon Z proved his undoing when almost half a second faster.

Lynch was out of luck also in yesterday’s World Cup contest, retiring with Querida after putting up eight faults.

It was a forgettable day for Thomas Ryan, the Tipperary native suffering elimination with two refusals on Quite Zero at the blue vertical at fence three.

Frank Rothenberger’s track was typically uncomplicated, but big and bold, with victor Germany’s Hans-Dieter Dreher (Embassy II) pointing out it demanded courage of the horse and the conviction of the rider. “It wasn’t enough to have a good jumper today, you needed a fighter as well” Dreher said.

At the three-star World Cup show in the UAE, Michael Hutchinson recorded a double, taking an accumulator class with Bendix and jumping highest to win the puissance on Acorad 3.

At the 12-week Winter Equestrian Festival in Florida, Cian O’Connor steered Adena Spring’s Quidam’s Cherie to third place in the $50,000 grand prix.

In a competition that resulted in less than a fifth of a second separating the top three, the Olympic bronze medallist saw his time trumped by 10-time Olympian Ian Millar aboard Dixson. The veteran Canadian’s performance also good enough to deny Brianne Goutal and Zernike K by two-hundredths of a second.

While ever-competitive, O’Connor was not displeased with his mount’s display.

“She is a nice mare. She placed third in the grand prix of nations cup week last year. She jumped really well. I only gave her one 1.40mtr class the first week and she jumped the WEF [Challenge Cup] well this week and went double clear tonight, so I was very pleased with her,” O’Connor said.