Cian O’Connor and the 11-year-old stallion Good Luck produced a stunning performance to win the five-star Grand Prix, last Sunday, at the Polish Nations Cup show in Sopot – just a week after O’Connor returned from a six week lay-off with a groin injury.

A tough first round course yielded just four clear rounds from the 50 starters. The top 25% went forward to the jump-off including the four clears, six riders on just a time fault, along with the three fastest four fault scores.

O’Connor and Good Luck ensured they were last to go, after they produced the fastest clear of the opening round.

Portuguese rider Luciana Diniz took the lead when second last to go with the chestnut mare Fit For Fun and stopped the clock clear in 48.77 seconds.

However, O’Connor and Good Luck knocked almost a second off the target, crossing the line in 47.59 to take the winners prize of almost €50,000.

Luciana Diniz finished as runner-up while Dutchman Marc Houtzager came home in third aboard Sterrehof’s Calimero.

Speaking afterwards O’Connor said: “I’m over the moon. The horse is getting a little bit older now and is a lot more consistent. I didn’t see many others go in the jump-off but the lads, Bertram (Allen) and Michael Blake, were a great help and said to leave a stride out from fence one to two and I think that’s where I made up the time.

“I have of course been off for a few weeks and the whole team including Michael Kelly and Ross Mulholand deserve a lot of credit for the work they put in while I was injured.

“This is a very important win as it now pre-qualifies us for all five-star Grand Prix’s for the next 12 months so big shows like Aachen or Dublin we don’t have to jump earlier in the week to qualify which is great.”

USA DOMINATEs NATIONS CUP

In the high scoring Division II Nations Cup the USA team of Lauren Haugh, Paris Sellon, Chiloe Reid and Laura Kraut came out ahead of 12 other squads after a jump-off with Holland.

In a very high scoring affair the Irish team and a strong points-seeking British side both failed to make the cut of eight into the second round.

Despite a confident clear from Cian O’Connor on Calisto the side of Paul Kennedy, Bertram Allen, Capt. Geoff Curran and O’Connor still racked up 25 penalties to finish 10th. In an exciting jump-off veteran Laura Kraut and young 19-year-old Sanne Thyijssen both had one down but Kraut won on time.