The 32 points gained by his performance boosted him to sixth place in the GCT League as he heads for London this Saturday. In the challenging first round Bertram just clipped out the boogie wall fence, but in a fast enough time he made the cut into the second round in 18th place. However, a clear in that first jump-off moved him up to overall fifth, behind Gregory Wathelet of Belgium who had the only treble clear. Cian O’Connor came home with eight on Coco II, and the following morning this partnership took third in a 1.45 class. With Belmonde Bertram coming second in Sunday’s 1.60 jump-off. Both Denis Lynch on Abbervail van het Dingeshof and Darragh Kenny on Sans Soucis Z missed the cut on four faults.

The vicissitudes of international show jumping horse ownership came to light in stark terms for Darragh Kenny last weekend. With little by way of explanation, owner Vicky Castegren removed four of her horses from his yard. Included among them was his possible Dublin and Europeans ride, Imothep. In the short term, he will now be depending on Caroline Lloyd’s Sans Soucis Z, that did well for him in both Estoril and Chantilly.

In the German Nations Cup at Manheim, the Irish team of Shane Breen, Kevin Babington, Shane Sweetnam and Conor Swail led after the first round on one penalty, but a disastrous second round dropped them to seventh behind the USA. Best of the Irish was Swail on his new horse Grand Cru VD Vijf Eiken with two clears. He also had a second on Viva Columbia.

In the $127,000 Tryon Grand Prix in North Carolina, Richie Moloney came third with Call Me Number One. Earlier at that show, Darragh Kerins had a win on Thunder D’Amoury.