Denis Lynch and Judy Reynolds flew the Irish flag with great honour at the two World Cup Finals in Gothenburg last weekend. Judy rode two superb tests to finish eighth in the Reem Acra Dressage Final. Denis and All Star were the only combination to jump five clear rounds but having had a slow start in the speed leg, he had a mountain to climb and did that to claim overall fifth after last Monday’s two-round decider.

Just as Ireland was celebrating its nationhood back home on Easter Sunday, Judy Reynolds was beautifully flying the Irish flag to the delight of a packed house of 11,000 in the Scandenavium Arena at Gothenburg as she competed in her first Reem Acra FEI Dressage World Cup Final. Having earned her place in the group of 18 top-flight riders contesting the freestyle final by placing ninth in Good Friday’s Grand Prix, she was drawn midway through the decider.

With her parents Kathleen and Joe and husband Patrick watching from the pocket, Reynolds and her fantastic mover Vancouver K danced their way into the lead on a lifetime best score of 77.339%. But with nine of the world’s best still to come, it was just not enough for a podium finish.

Gradually the scores crept up as performance after performance further impressed the judges. Finally it reached a high of 82.387% scored by Dutch veteran star Hans Peter Minderhood on the 15-year-old Glock’s Flirt. He went on to win ahead of hometown favourite, Sweden’s Tinne Vilhelmson Silfven on Don Auriello, who was last to go and just missed out by one percentage point. Judy finished a most credible eighth out of the original 18 starters. For her, it was a huge step in her career and gives her great encouragement to take on the best once more in Rio.

Lynch clear all the way

Denis Lynch and All Star were the only combination out of 36 starters to jump clear over all five rounds over brilliantly testing Santiago Varela courses in the Longines World Cup Final. Having to be careful with his big jumping stallion in the opening twisting speed leg, he went for the safe clear. With many going quickly clear after that, Lynch was dropped back all the way to 22nd place going into Saturday’s Grand Prix.

But a mountain to climb means nothing to the Tipperary man. That he did as he jumped superb clears over the next four rounds. He came out of the Grand Prix in 10th place; his clear in the first of two big rounds on Monday brought him up to seventh.

A final confident clear in the very last round boosted him once more to a fifth finish on eight penalties behind winner and defending champion, Switzerland’s Steve Guerdat on Corbinian (by Coronet Obolensky out of a Pilot dam).

Harrie Smolders of the Netherlands came second on Emerald while 2014 champion, Germany’s Daniel Deusser was third on Cornet d’Amour, with Marcus Ehning fourth on Cornado.

It is interesting that three of the top four horses are by Coronet Obolensky. However, horse of the show was Denis Lynch’s stallion All Star 5 by Argentinus, owned by himself and Thomas Straumann.