Dermott Lennon, fresh from his Grand Prix triumph in Stockholm on Sunday, last night confirmed that Liscalgot, his European gold medal ride for Terence Harvey, is for sale.

Terence Harvey, who with his wife Mary bred Liscalgot at his home in Crossmaglen, said last night: "The mare has not been sold," - but he would neither confirm nor deny that the 10-year-old daughter of Touchdown he describes as a "family pet" is on the market.

Lennon rode Liscalgot to clinch Ireland's first showjumping team gold at this year's European championships in Holland. He said last night that he had been told yesterday by Harvey that the mare was to be sold, but that he would be given a chance to try to find a buyer himself before the horse is put on the open market.

He is now hoping to put together a syndicate to buy Liscalgot for him, but he revealed that he also has another option in the shape of a foreign client who might buy the horse, leaving Lennon in the saddle until after the World Equestrian Games in Jerez, Spain next September.

The mare has been the subject of increasing interest on the international circuit and, as her tally of wins has grown, so have the size of the offers made for her, with recent talk of a £2 million proposal. Although that seems an astronomical sum for a sport horse, the mare is undoubtedly a serious candidate for an Olympic medal in Athens, a fact that has not escaped the world's top riders.

Lennon himself last night described Liscalgot as "probably the best horse in the world that's on the market at the moment", going on to say that he would put a much higher value on her than the £2 million currently circulating.

"It would be heartbreaking to lose her", Lennon says of the mare he has earmarked as his Athens Olympic ride in 2004. "She's only really coming into her own now."

It would indeed be heartbreaking, particularly as the Harvey family have been such staunch supporters of Lennon, keeping the mare for him to ride, despite the spiralling offers. And it would be even harder to bear if the mare were to be sold abroad and went on to win an Olympic medal in Athens after the controversial decision not to send an Irish team to the Sydney Games last year.