Bertram Allen added another trophy to this year’s haul when he produced a dazzling final round to scoop the Audi Prize at the five-star show in ’s-Hertogenbosch in the Netherlands tonight.

A highly competitive first round allowed 12 combinations through to the jump-off from a starting field of 40, with both Denis Lynch on Van Helsing and Allen with Quiet Easy making the cut for the second round.

Lynch produced another clear on the bay stallion, but lagged behind the leaders on time. Allen, last to jump, had the challenge of beating Italian speed ace Lorenzo de Luca with Halifax van het Kluizebos, who was holding first place on the leaderboard, but amazed the capacity crowd by shaving almost two seconds off de Luca’s time.

Allen, who picked up 15,500 euro for his first place on the 13 year-old gelding, said afterwards: “There was no room for error here. Lorenzo wins a lot with that horse so I just took the risk, went as fast as I could, but ended up even faster than I thought I would be.

“Quiet Easy is a super horse, and it’s a rare occasion when he doesn’t win money at any show we attend. It was very fast tonight, and it was nice to win it when last to go.”

Denis Lynch settled for a sixth place with Van Helsing and took home 3,500 euro.

Jack Burns