TWENTY year-old Bertram Allen placed fourth in this afternoon’s Winning Round competition at the five-star show in Aachen, Germany with Billy Twomey’s 18 year-old stallion Romanov.

The only Irish rider to go clear in the first round, which yielded 13 zero scores from a starting list of 30, Allen displayed his characteristic turn of speed in the final round, but was unable to reach higher than third on the leaderboard against a talented international field.

French rider Roger-Yves Bost and the Selle Français stallion Pegase du Murier then produced a blistering time of 44.94, almost three seconds faster than Allen, and enough to claim first prize, dropping the Irish rider to fourth overall.

Allen will now have his sights set on taking a place in Sunday’s million euro Aachen Grand Prix, considered to be one of the most testing competitions on the international circuit.