IRELAND'S Billy Twomey tonight (Friday) won the coveted Rolex Top Ten Final trophy in a two-round competition at the five-star show in Paris, France, collecting 50,000 euro in prize money and a Rolex watch worth 8,000 euro.

The 34 year-old Cork rider piloted Sue Davies's chestnut mare Tinka's Serenade and were one of just two combinations to deliver a double clear round, beating Canada's world number one rider Eric Lamaze and Coriana van Klapscheut by a fifth of a second.

Ireland had two riders in the class, which was open to the top ten riders in the Rolex World rankings present at the show, and Tipperary's Denis Lynch took seventh with Thomas Straumann's 11 year-old gelding Abbervail van het Dingeshof, who went clear for him in the first round, but dislodged three fences in the second. Lynch won 10,000 euro for his place.

Twomey and Lynch are joined at the Paris Gucci Masters by Mark McAuley, and all three will have their sights set on Sunday's Gucci Grand Prix, where the combined prize money jumps to 300,000 euro, with the winner taking home 75,000 euro.
 

Billy Twomey with the Rolex Top Ten trophy pictured in Paris on Saturday morning. Photo: Kit Houghton