KILDARE’s Olympic dressage rider Judy Reynolds landed her first five-star Grand Prix victory in Dortmund, Germany, last Saturday when coming out on top by over 3% in the Freestyle to Music.

Reynolds and her Rio Olympic Games mount Vancouver K (Jazz x Ferro) were one of six combinations to make it through from Friday’s Grand Prix qualifier, where they finished in fourth place from 14 starters. The 15-year-old gelding, who is owned by Judy’s parents, Joe and Kathleen Reynolds, came to life on Saturday night to score 76.70% and blow away the opposition.

Reynolds was riding a relatively new test, to the music of ‘I’m So Excited’ by The Pointer Sisters, and was delighted that the routine is starting to come together.

“I’m very, very happy. He (Vancouver K) was great. We have been working on this test for a relatively short time and now its starting to come together,” Reynolds said afterwards.

“I’m never happy when I come out [after the test], I always feel there is something I could have done better but that’s what makes me improve.

“There were no mistakes as such, just a couple of things that we could do even better. This is probably only the fourth time we have ridden this particular test in competition and we are starting to build more confidence in the test now.”

When asked about plans for the immediate future and the looming World Cup finals in Omaha, USA, Reynolds said: “I don’t want to tempt fate before it’s 100% confirmed but it looks like we will make it to the finals. We will possibly take in one more qualifier next week and then have a few weeks’ break before the final, all going well.”

Germany’s Hendrik Lochthowe, riding Meggle’s Boston (73.575%), finished as runners-up, while another German rider, Beatrice Buchwald, took third spot on the podium with Daily Pleasure (72.250%).

Reynolds and Vancouver K had previously scored four-star Grand Prix wins in Austria and in the USA but the Dortmund result is a first for the pair at five-star level coming on top of a milestone year.