IRELAND’S Bertram Allen secured over €500,000 for being part of the winning Valkenswaard United team that claimed the inaugural Global Champions League during a dramatic final at the Al Shaqab in Doha on Thursday evening.

Joined by British legend John Whitaker, Valkenswaard United’s sixth place finish in the final leg was good enough to see them clinch the overall league with 328.50 points, just 2.5 points ahead of the Antwerp Diamonds, and win a total of €1,794,284, the lion’s share of the incredible €7.5 million season prize money.

The winning team were also awarded a €1.3 million bonus.

Throughout the 15-leg series, the team of Allen, Whitaker, young American rider Emily Moffit and Brazil’s Eduardo Menezes won four legs, all of which Allen was part of, in Miami, Hamburg, Monaco and Vienna.

After a testing first round, where both Allen with the 18-year-old Romanov and Whitaker aboard his Olympic mount Ornellaia finished with four faults apiece, their team total of eight faults saw them scrape into the second round.

However, Whitaker, first to go in round two jumped a foot perfect clear round to put the team back in contention. Allen picked up 12 faults after an uncharacteristic refusal from Romanov, however the team total of 20 faults was good enough to win the league by the narrowest of margins from nearest rivals, Jos Verlooy and Harrie Smolders of Antwerp Diamonds.

The Paris Jets team of Sweden’s Rolf-Goran Bengtsson and Belgium’s Nicola Phillppaerts jumped double clear with seven seconds to spare ahead of the rest of the field to win the Doha leg.

Allen was delighted to win the very first Global Champions League, saying: “It’s been brilliant, it’s been a long season. We were battling out the whole year. If you’re not consistent and fully revved up and concentrate, you have a bad result and that will compromise the end of the season.”

The Longines Global Champions Tour final takes place tonight. Sweden’s Rolf-Goran Bengtsson currently leads the tour by five points with Australia’s Edwina Tops-Alexander hot on his heels.

Should Tops-Alexander win the overall league, she will become the first rider in history to win the title three times. Allen lies in fourth place going into the final, where he will ride Noel Delahunty’s Hector Van Abdijhoeve.

“Hector feels great,” Allen told The Irish Field yesterday. “He had a busy summer with Dublin, Rome and Vienna so had a little break as I didnt want to bring him indoors before Doha.

“I have a good placing going in to the final, so if I can hang on to that and finish in the top five, I will be happy,” he said.

Denis Lynch and Cian O’Connor also line out for Ireland. The final kicks off at 20.15 Irish time and will be streamed live on GCT TV.