GERMANY’s Christian Ahlmann and the brilliant Taloubet Z cruised to victory in the fifth leg of the Longines FEI World Cup Western European League on home soil at the Stuttgart Masters in Germany last Sunday.

Forty horse and rider combinations started over Luc Musette’s track, and 19 of those made it through to the jump-off. In the race against the clock it was the 16-year-old stallion, guided by the world number one, who broke the beam ahead of the rest in an untouchable time of 42.85 seconds.

“Everything worked out the way I wanted, we had an amazing run and Taloubet did an amazing job!” said the 41-year-old after demoting defending Longines champion, Switzerland’s Steve Guerdat, into the runner-up spot. Irishman Cian O’Connor finished in third place with the big-jumping Good Luck.

It was the Meath man that set the target in the jump off. Fourth into the ring of the 19 combinations, and riding the exuberant 10-year-old stallion, who is owned by Adena Springs and Ronnoco Jump Ltd, he jumped a fantastic clear round in 45.03 seconds.

O’Connor held on to that lead until former Olympic champion Steve Guerdat, riding the 10-year-old mare Biana, by Balou Du Rouet, got a good gallop up over the final fences and shaved a fraction off his time in 44.95, a time which momentarily looked good enough to claim victory.

However, with six riders left to go, Ahlmann produced a stunning round in a lightning fast time of 42.85 aboard Taloubet Z to win the Stuttgart leg of the series for a second year in a row, albeit on a different horse.

While the Galoubet A-sired stallion is in fantastic shape, Ahlmann said afterwards that the stallion, who helped secured a bronze medal for German at the Olympic Games, would not contest any more big finals.

“He feels fresh, like a young horse, he knows every situation in the world and it’s easy to train and keep him fit, so he will do some big shows and continue to enjoy the sport, but no more big finals for him,” Ahlmann explained.

Switzerland’s Martin Fuchs slotted into fourth place with Clooney 51 (0/0 45.10), ahead of German rider Janne Friederike Meyer and Goja in fifth (0/0 45.34).

Ahlmann drove away in a brand-new Mercedes-Benz car after his victory, with Guerdat collecting almost €30,000, while Cian O’Connor pocketed more than €22,000 for his third place finish.

Speaking afterwards O’Connor said: “I couldn’t be happier with Good Luck. He has jumped in two World Cups so far and was clear and four in Oslo and double clear placing third here. He’s getting faster and more agile all the time which the results are starting to show.”

Wexford’s Bertram Allen also made it into the jump-off with the talented Hector van d’Abdijhoeve but eight faults against saw them finish in 16th place in the competitive class.

That result has moved O’Connor up to 10th place on the Western European leaderboard on 21 points, one place ahead of Tipperary’s Shane Breen, who finished with 12 faults in the first round, on 20 points. Guerdat has now moved into pole position ahead of the next leg of the series in Madrid tomorrow (Sunday).

allen win

Bertram Allen was at his brilliant best on Saturday night when galloping to victory in the 1.50m Prize of Geze with Dino W.

Some 15 combinations jumped clear in the opening round of the feature class but it was the imposing eight-year-old by Berlin, who is owned by Ballywalter Farms, that came out on top to record his biggest victory to date. Third last to go, Allen set a good pace and broke the beam in 40.18 seconds to push Colombia’s Carlos Enrique Lopez Lizarazo and Cuplandra (0/0 41.01) into second place ahead of Germany’s Philip Ruping and Clinta (0/0 41.12). The 21-year-old picked up €7,500 for the win.

Dino W has been produced up through the ranks by Allen’s former stable rider Alex Duffy and more recently Mayo’s Jack Dodd has picked up good placings on the stallion. Allen also guided him to win one of the seven and eight-year-old international classes in the main arena at the Dublin Horse Show last July.

LONGINES FEI WORLD CUP JUMPING 2016/2017

Western European League standings after round five in

Stuttgart