THE Summer Festival at Valkenswaard in The Netherlands proved a happy hunting ground for Tipperary’s Denis Lynch, when he won last Friday’s four-star 1.45m two-phase class with the 12-year-old stallion Cornets Iberio, owned by Sebastien Schatzmann.

Lynch is no stranger to finishing top of the podium and was on the Irish show jumping team that won the five-star Nations Cup in Aachen recently. Building on this and on his five-star success at Hamburg in May with Cornets Iberio, Lynch was best of the 26 starters, jumping double clear and clocking a speedy jump-off time of 28.40 seconds. This was more than two seconds faster than his nearest challenger, Mexico’s Enrique Gonzalez on Origi van de Zeshoek (30.50). France’s Antoine Ermann completed the podium with Pegasus Dawsons Flex just a fraction behind in 30.55.