CIAN O’Connor continued an unbelievable run of top form when finishing runner-up in the €200,000 five-star Grand Prix at Rotterdam in The Netherlands last Sunday aboard Adena Spring’s Good Luck.

With a win already on the board in Friday morning’s 1.50m speed class with Copain du Perchet, O’Connor came agonisingly close to landing his second five-star Grand Prix within the space of a month when stopping the clock in 40.46 seconds.

Fifty combinations started over the track designed by Louis Konickx, who came in for some criticism after the first round of the Nations Cup on Friday after 20 of the starting 30 in the first round went clear over what was widely viewed as an easy track.

He certainly didn’t build a straightforward track for Sunday’s Grand Prix and the 1.60m vertical six strides after the open water caused the most hassle, with over half the start list failing to clear it.

Just eight managed to keep a clean sheet in round one. Runner-up to O’Connor in Sopot, Portugal’s Luciana Diniz and the wonderful mare Fit For Fun set the target at 42.02, but when fourth to go, O’Connor shot to the head of the leaderboard with Good Luck (Canturo x Furioso II), breaking the beam in 40.46.

However, Sweden’s Peder Fredricson, a member of the winning Nations Cup team, and his Olympic silver medal winning horse, H&M All In, shaved three-tenths of a second off the target when next to go and they took the winner’s prize of €50,000.

The home crowd cheered loudly for Dutchman Marc Houtzager and Sterrehof’s Calimero in third place, with a time of 40.59.

Offaly’s Darragh Kenny also made it into the jump-off with Charly Chaplin S and they posted the fastest time of the competition (39.43), but the very last fence fell to the floor, dropping Kenny down to seventh place at the finish. O’Connor collected €40,000 for his runner-up finish.

“I’ve had a very good month so it rounds it off well,” O’Connor said afterwards.

The Meath man also finished fourth in Saturday’s 1.45m two-phase with the Irish Sport Horse Cybel II (0/0 28.52), in a class that was won by his student, America’s Lillie Keenan and Be Gentle.