Cian O’Connor and the stallion Good Luck continued with their remarkable run of top five places when finishing second in the Rotterdam Grand Prix today.

Collecting 40,000 euro for the place, O’Connor produced a faultless first round when 31st to jump, and repeated the performance in the eight horse jump-off, briefly holding the lead on 40.46 seconds until Sweden’s Peder Fredricson and H&M All In clipped a third of a second off the Irish combination’s time.

However, none of the remaining riders managed to equal O’Connor’s time, and he finished the five-star competition as runner-up.

Ireland’s other qualifier for the jump-off at Rotterdam, Darragh Kenny with Charly Chaplin S, were on the fastest time of the day until clipping the very last fence, and finished in eighth overall.

Since returning from a six week injury lay-off, O’Connor has had a fourth place in the Wiesbaden Grand Prix (Good Luck), fourth at Sopot in Poland (Cybel), a first in the Sopot Grand Prix (Good Luck), two wins at Treffen in Austria (Callisto and Copain du Perchet), a third place in the Treffen Grand Prix (Skyhorse) and a win at Rotterdam on Copain du Perchet.

O’Connor has been shortlisted as one of seven riders named by Irish show jumping team manager Rodrigo Pessoa for possible selection as Ireland’s European Championship squad at Gothenburg in Sweden this August.

Jack Burns