2011
On the 12th of January, it was reported that Lynch has withdrawn from competing as a member of the Irish Team. 'Irreconcilable differences' over team tactics, and with the Irish Chef d'Equipe – Robert Splaine – were the problems. Horse Sport Ireland released a statement on the 14th of January stating that they had gone as far as to offer to fly the Chairman of Horse Sport Ireland Joe Walsh, the Team Manager Robert Splaine, and the CEO of Horse Sport Ireland Damian McDonald to Europe to meet with Denis and his owner, but Lynch could not see 'any benefit' in doing so. Lynch responded saying that the decision 'was very difficult to take and was taken after considerable deliberation'. He also said that he wanted to 'draw a line under this matter now', but did not rule out riding for Ireland again in the future. At the beginning of March, both parties released statements indicating that the issues had been resolved.
CSI5* Basel, Switzerland: In the 'Championat of Stadt Basel' – a 1m50 jump-off class – Lynch directed Lantinus to 5th prize of €6,200. In the 1m50 jump-off class on Saturday, he and All Inclusive Nrw finished 6th to take over €1,500. On Sunday, in the 'Grand Hotel Les Trois Rois' 1m45 jump-off, the pair took 3rd prize of €6,200.
CSI4* Amsterdam, The Netherlands: Lynch directed Abbervail van het Dingeshof to 4th place in the Grand Prix to collect €7,500.
CSI5*-W Zurich, Switzerland: Denis and Abbervail van het Dingeshof finished second to take nearly €18,000 in the 'Liebherr-Prize' – a 1m50 two-phase class. On Saturday, he partnered Lacroix to the top-spot in the 1m40 speed class to earn €7,800.
CSI5*-W Bordeaux, France: Lynch and All Inclusive NRW took the top prize of €10,500 in the feature class on the opening night – a 1m50 jump-off class. The following day, he and Upsilon d'Ocquier took 3rd prize of €3,750 in 1m45 speed class. In Sunday morning's Accumulator, Lynch and Lacroix took 2nd prize of €5,000.
CSI5*-W Vigo, Spain: He and Abbervail van het Dingeshof finished 5th in the Grand Prix to take €12,200. The pair also took 14th prize of €1,150 in the Rolex FEI World Cup qualifier.
CSI3* Neumunster, Germany: Lynch and Lacroix took second prize of €7670 in the Grand Prix
CSI5*-W Gothenburg, Sweden: In the Rolex FEI World Cup, he and Abbervail van het Dingeshof jumped a 0/4 to finish 6th – this brought Lynch within grasp of the World Cup Final, and he earned €4,500. He and All Inclusive NRW had a single time fault in the first round of the Grand Prix to settle for 9th prize of €1,245. On Friday night, Lynch and Abbervail van het Dingeshof took joint-second prize of €2,400 in the Six-Bar competition.
CSI4* Braunschweiger, Germany: 'Volkswagen' 1m55 Grand Prix: 9th on Abbervail van het Dingeshof to collect €1,000.
CSI5* Global Champions Tour Doha, Qatar: In the Grand Prix which saw only 3 double-clear rounds, Lynch and All Inclusive NRW finished 5th with just a single time-fault in each round to earn €25,000. The pair also finished 5th in the 1m50 jump-off class on Thursday night to earn a further €3,750.
CSI5*-W 's-Hertogenbosch, the Netherlands: Going in to this final opportunity for World Cup qualification, Lynch needed valuable points to move into the top-18 to earn qualification to the Final in Leipzig. He and Abbervail van het Dingeshof took maximum points in this leg by winning the Rolex FEI World Cup class ensuring a place in the final, and taking €58,000 in prize-money. He and Lacroix also placed 4th in a 1m50 winning round class on Friday night to secure €2,700 in prize-money, and in the 1m35 Table C Derby on Saturday evening, Upsilon d'Ocquier was beaten by just 0.37 second into second place to earn €5,000
CSI3* Leipzig, Germany: Lynch partnered All Inclusive NRW to an Irish one-two in the €100,000 Grand Prix collecting €20,000.
CSI5* Global Champions Tour of Valencia, Spain: Lacroix took 5th prize of €1,840 in a 1m45 class on Friday. The pair also took 6th prize of €1,380 in another 1m45 class on Saturday. Lynch then partnered Abbervail van het Dingeshof to 5th place in the GCT Grand Prix to take €16,000, and bring Denis up to 2nd position in the GCT Rankings.
CSI3* Mannheim, Germany: All Inclusive NRW took 3rd prize of €7,500 in the Grand Prix.
CSI3* Noerten Hardenberg, Germany: Abbervail van het Dingeshof earned €4,600 by finishing 2nd in a 1m45 class.
CSI5* Global Champions Tour / CSI3* Hamburg, Germany: Lantinus took the top prize of a €60,000 Mercedes SLK in the 'Mercedes-Benz Championat von Hamburg' on the opening day. Lynch also partnered All Inclusive NRW to 13th place (on 5 faults) in the GCT Grand Prix, taking €2,850 in prize-money, and dropping to 3rd in the GCT Rankings. In the final competition – the DKB Riders Tour Derby – he and Upsilon d'Ocquier took 9th prize of €2,500.
CSI5* Global Champions Tour Cannes, France: Lantinus made his Grand Prix return to finish 5th and take €16,000 in prize-money. This result left Lynch in 3rd position in the GCT Rankings. Night Train also took 2nd prize of €3,680 in a 1m50 class.
CSI5* Global Champions Tour Monte Carlo, Monaco: Night Train took €1,050 in a 1m45 class on Friday night by finishing in 8th position.
CSI5* Global Champions Tour Estoril, Portugal: Nabab's Son jumped 4/4 in the Grand Prix to settle for 16th prize of €2,000.
CSIO5* Falsterbo, Sweden: Lynch and Lord Luis took 3rd prize of €3,200 in a 1m50 class. The pair also jumped clear in the first round of the FEI Nations Cup.
CSIO5* World Equestrian Festival, Aachen, Germany: The Irish team finished 2nd in the FEI Nations Cup on Thursday night: Shane Breen (Carmena Z) 8/0; Shane Sweetnam (Amaretto d'Arco) 0/4; Denis Lynch (All Inclusive NRW) 4/0; Billy Twomey (Tinka's Serenade) (8)/(5). On Saturday night, Lynch directed Night Train to 2nd place (behing fellow Irishman – Shane Breen) in the 'Sparkasse Derby' to earn €5,200. The same night, he also finished 3rd on Lord Luis in the €55,000 'Best of Champions' competition to take €8,000 in prize-money.
CSI5* Global Champions Tour Chantilly, France: Lynch and Night Train earned 3rd prize of €6,160 in the 'Equida' Grand Prix on Sunday.
CSIO5* 'Discover Ireland' RDS Dublin Horse Show, Ireland: Night Train took second prize of €5,000 in the 'Power and Speed' competition on Friday, and on the same night, All Inclusive NRW earned €1,300 by finishing 4th in the Six Bar. The Irish team finished 2nd in the FEI Nations Cup on Saturday: Billy Twomey (Tinka's Serenade) 0/(Ret)/ jump-off for first place: Retired; Shane Sweetnam (Amaretto d'Arco) 0/0; Nicola Fitzgibbon (Puissance) 4/0; Denis Lynch (All Inclusive NRW) (5)/4. On Saturday, Lynch and Nabab's Son earned €1,200 by finishing 7th in the 1m50 Dublin Stakes.
CSI5*-GCT Valkenswaard, the Netherlands: During the 3 day show, Lynch picked up in excess of €72,000. €60,000 of this came from Lantinus' 2nd place finish in the GCT Grand Prix on Saturday. Night Train also had a successful show, winning the Medium Tour final for €7,360, and took €3,680 by finishing 2nd in another 1m50 class. Upsilon d'Ocquier finished 6th in the Derby on Sunday, earning €1,086.
CSI5*-GCT Rio de Janeiro, Brazil: In the opening class - a 1m45 speed class - Lynch and Night Train took 6th prize of €1,500.
CSI3* Paderborn, Germany: Contifex took 4th prize of €2,000 in a 1m50 class on Friday. The pair also took 5th prize of €1,500 in a 1m45 class on Sunday.
CES5* European Championships, Madrid, Spain: Shane Sweetnam (Amaretto d'Arco) 3.46/8/8; Nicola Fitzgibbon (Puissance) (9.74)/(21)/(20); Denis Lynch (Lantinus) 8.71/9/4; Billy Twomey (Tinka's Serenade) 0.95/0/12; After round 1, Ireland lay 9th on 13.12 faults behind France in the lead on 2.95. Ireland climbed to 7th position and within the Olympic qualification threshold, but their third round performances dropped them to 9th and out of Olympic qualification.
CSI3* Donaueschingen, Germany: Lynch and Lord Luis finished 6th in the Middle Tour Final to earn €1,400.
CSI3* Horse of the Year Show, Birmingham, UK: Lord Luis took second prize of £4,300 (€5,000) in a speed class on Thursday night.
CSI5*-W 'Kingsland' Horse Show, Oslo, Norway: Lynch and Lantinus took 5th prize of €12,000 in the Rolex FEI World Cup.
CSI5*-W Equita Lyon, France: Lynch and the eight-year-old Contifex finished 2nd in the Equita'Masters to take €20,000. Lantinus took 6th prize of €10,000 in the Rolex FEI World Cup to bring Lynch to 4th in the overall rankings. Abberuail van het Dingeshof finished 2nd in the opening class, a 1m45 two-phase class, earning €4,600, and that evening, in the qualifier for the Rolex FEI World Cup, Lynch and Lantinus finished second and earned €11,200.
CSI5*-W Verona, Italy: Lynch and Lord Luis picked up €5,000 in prize-money in the 1m50 Grand Prix that was won by fellow Irishman, Niall Talbot. Abberuail van het Dingeshof also earned €5,000 for finishing second in the 1m50 Accumulator, and a further €1,650 for 6th place in a 1m50 speed class.
CSI4* Vienna, Austria: The eight-year-old Contifex took 4th prize of €8,000 in the Grand Prix on Monday. Crocant also earned €1,000 for 9th place in the Derby on Saturday night.
CSI5*-W Stuttgart, Germany: Lynch and Abberuail van het Dingeshof finished 6th in the Rolex FEI World Cup to earn €8,000. Contifex picked up €1,000 for 9th place in a 1m55 jump-off class.
CSI5* GCT Final Abu Dhabi, UAE: Lantinus jumped 0/8 to finish 18th in the Grand Prix for €3,000. This result meant Lynch finished 6th in the GCT Rankings of 2011, earning €33,750.
CSI5* Gucci Masters Paris, France: Abberuail van het Dingeshof took 7th prize in the Rolex IJRC Top Ten Final, earning €10,000. On Saturday, Lynch and Night Train also won a 1m45 two-phase class worth €7,000 to the winner, and Crocant took 9th prize of €2,600 in a 1m50 jump-off class.
CSI5*-W Geneva, Switzerland: Upsilon d'Ocuqier took equal-first prize of €5,120 (6,330CHF) in the Six Bar. In the Grand Prix jump-off of 16 combinations, Lantinus was early to jump and took the lead, but they were eventually beaten by less three seconds, and by 8 other riders to finish 9th and earned €4,050 (5,000CHF).
CSI5* La Coruna, Spain: Lantinus jumped 4/8 in the Grand Prix to finish 8th and earn €4,230.
CSI5*-W Mechelen, Germany: Lynch partnered Abbervail van het Dingeshof to 5th prize of €10,000 in the Rolex FEI World Cup, moving him to 2nd in the overall rankings. He also rode Night Train to first position in a 1m45 class worth €6,500 to the winner.
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