CAPTION: Denis Lynch and Brooklyn Heights secured the second of the Tipperary rider’s two LGCT five-star triumphs at the Longines Global Champions Tour event in Mexico City
Denis Lynch enjoyed a real red-letter day at the Longines Global Champion Tour event in Mexico City late on Saturday night, winning two five-star classes and helping his Rome Gladiators team finish second in the Longines Global Champions League.Lynch began by beating off stiff international competition – bar one – in a dramatic class against the clock over a testing 1.55m track set by Peter Grant and his team.Lynch and Cordial were inseparable from Sanne Thijssen (NED) and Con Quidam RB, both combinations clocking 75.59 to share top spot on the podium. Lynch and Cordial were 32nd of the 39 combinations to enter the arena. The 15-year-old bay stallion owned by Lynch and Tipperary’s Finest Est was foot perfect and fast. Remarkably, their time was equalled by Thijssen, the Cannes Stars competitor getting a fantastic tune from his 18-year-old partner. It was a spectacular conclusion to a competitive affair.The second individual class contributing to the team contest resulted in another triumph – this time on a sole basis – in the second five-star class against the clock for the Tipperary native. Going into the arena on a fresh Brooklyn Heights, who is owned by Molly Ohrstrom, Lynch was able to separate himself completely from the pack in the 1.60m examination, 0.17 seconds seeming like a yawning gap compared to the initial event. Richard Vogel (GER) and Cepano Baloubet filled the runner-up slot.With Spencer Smith (USA) and HHS Seattle also going clear, Rome Gladiators rocketed from tenth to second, the overall spoils going to the Prague Lions combo of local man, Fernando Martinez Sommer and Thibeau Spits (BEL).Lynch’s heroics came on an evening when there was significant Irish success on the Blenheim Springs Classic Tour event in San Juan Capidrano, as Conor Swail and Count Me In won the $117,000 three-star Blenheim Spring Classic 2 Grand Prix.It was a third success of the week for the Down native and a second in partnership with Count Me In. The 17-year-old Count Grannus gelding responded magnificently to his rider’s guidance in the 1.50m feature, as one of only six horses to go clear before leaving those remaining challengers for dust in the jump-off.
