MICHAEL Blake was a happy man in Vancouver, Canada, last Sunday when, for the second time in the space of a week, his team won a five-star Nations Cup, this time on the other side of the world.

Ireland were not competing for points in the North and Central America and Caribbean division of the Longines FEI Jumping Nations Cup, but that hasn’t stopped their ambition at the venue in recent years, winning three of the last four renewals of the competition.