IT IS six months now since Andrew Lynch invested in a new car. He has put up 50,000 kilometres already. Lynch drives a lot, as at least one “scobie” knows only too well.

The reason the jockey bought a new car was because his old one was nicked. It was an 09 job that clearly proved too appealing a prospect to someone. If there is one consolation to the story though it is the idea of the thief’s face when twigging the 200,000 kilometres on the clock of a two-year-old car. Andrew Lynch drives an awful lot.

“He’s unbelievable. I’d challenge anyone to spend a day with him. They’d have to spend the following day in bed. His energy is incredible,” says Robbie Hennessy, the trainer who supplies Lynch with Rubi Light in tomorrow’s Ryanair.

“He comes and rides out for me a few mornings a week, and he could be coming here from having ridden out on the Curragh. And after me he’ll be off to ride for someone like Barney O’Hare in Dundalk. The mileage he puts up is unbelievable,” Hennessy adds.

But all that time behind the wheel has paid off. Like most “overnight successes”, the work Lynch has put in has been long and hard but he is now one of the leading jockeys in Ireland with a proven pedigree in getting the job done at the highest level.

Today he has the responsibility of steering the latest festival hotpots Sizing Europe as he defends his Queen Mother Champion Chase crown. If, as expected, Lynch and Sizing win at Cheltenham for the third successive year, it will be just the latest piece of evidence that hard work does pay off.

Lynch had ridden Sizing Europe out on a regular basis in the horse’s hurdling days. That involved regularly clocking up the miles to Tramore to Henry De Bromhead’s yard. More fashionable jockeys though got the nod on raceday. That is until Sizing Europe was switched to fences.

“I was riding plenty for Henry anyway but then he told Mr and Mrs Potts that he would like me to ride their horses as well,” Lynch remembers.

De Bromhead appreciates a team player. But it’s one thing being given a chance. It’s another taking it. The quietly-spoken 27-year-old from Ashbourne, Co Meath, has taken his chances with a vengeance over the last few years.

Last month when Dermot Weld was looking for someone to ride Hisaabaat in a Grade One at Leopardstown he looked for a jockey riding with confidence. He plumped for Lynch and that call was rewarded with a win. Weld is as shrewd a judge of a jockey as he is of a horse and Hisaabaat is one of a string of Grade One opportunities for the rider this week. But Sizing Europe remains number one.

Confidence can be fleeting in any sport but what is noticeable about Lynch this season is the consistency with which he has delivered. However, that is hardly surprising considering the influence of the late Michael O’Brien on his career.

The trainer was famously demanding of his jockeys, and not shy about informing them of their deficiencies, even if they won. Barry Geraghty once felt the edge of O’Brien’s tongue after winning a Pierse Hurdle on Essex. Rarely though was O’Brien’s ire directed towards Lynch.

“I rode for him when I turned professional and I always found him very fair. Once you did what you were told he was fine,” Lynch remembers. “And he was always a great race reader. He knew things could go wrong in a race but nine times out of 10 what he told you would happen in a race did happen.”

That grounding, combined with major victories on Notre Pere in the Welsh National and the Punchestown Gold Cup, advertised Lynch’s talents in a notoriously fashion-conscious game.

Not a personality given to self-promotion, it has suited him to let his riding do the talking. But now everyone is listening.

You never know: they might even include a disgruntled thief somewhere still trying to get a certain well-used car off his hands.