In Friday's Suez Environment 1.55 class in Dinard, Irish rider Billy Twomey was the fastest of the 46 riders on his 18 years old mare Tinka's Serenade (Tinka's Boy x African Drum).

Like in the previous class, the riders had to clear the course but also be as quick as possible to get to the podium. The technical difficulty of the course, in spite of being fluid, caused a few problems for most of the contenders and only eight of them managed to cross the finish line without penalties.

Canadian rider Eric Lamaze and Fine Lady (Forsyth x Drosselklang II) were in the lead from the beginning of the class, with a time of 71.02 seconds that seemed unbeatable. Billy Twomey and his faithful Tinka's Serenade did not hesitate to push them down to second place though, with a time of 70.92. "Tinka's has been fantastic, like she has been for the past nine years. She was already excellent as a young horse. She is still very happy, and healthy. I try to save her, she only does two shows a month. She will be in the Grand Prix on Sunday."

Third place went to in-form Jerome Guery, riding Papillon Z (Perhaps x Cassini I) - his winning Grand Prix partner from Lummen, Knokke and Mons.

8th and best French, riding Silver Deux de Virton HDC, Olivier Guillon, was very happy to see how his partner improved. "I have been riding him for the past four years. Today for the first time I was able to control him all along the course. He did not try to escape. With a lot of work, his behaviour finally changed, he just needed time."

Source: Press release from CSI5* Dinard