With four of the international jumping classes run, the scoreline in the RDS main arena at Ballsbridge reads Ireland two, France two as the rivals gear up for a head to head in this afternoon's Kerrygold Nations Cup honours.
Lieut David O'Brien, who is forging an impressive partnership with the Clover Hill mare Lismore Clover, proved unstoppable in a thrilling race for the feature Kerrygold Speed Derby, heading an Irish one-two when followed home in the line-up by Cian O'Connor, who makes his Aga Khan team debut today.
O'Connor had set the early target when clear in 86.25 seconds with the German mare ABC Landliebe, even though the Co Kildare rider chose to ignore the risky short cuts on the twisting 14-fence track.
That held for a further eight rounds, until 24-year-old Westmeath jockey O'Brien threw down his challenge in a bid to avenge the relegation of his Army Equitation School colleague, Lieut Danielle Quinlivan.
Teamed up with Lismore Clover, which was donated to the Army last year by Lady Moira Forbes, O'Brien has already notched up two international wins at the Austrian Nations Cup show in Linz this summer, but a Dublin victory was high on his wish-list for the season.
Starting off at a fairly sober pace with the relatively inexperienced Lismore Clover, O'Brien let off the handbrake on the second half of the track and, with a fabulously audacious angle into the penultimate double of railway gates, had the mare's nose through the finish beam 1.27 of a second to the good for the win.
Next in, Edward Doyle gave it a great shot with Cor d'Alme Z and did the time by a mile when clocking 81.21, almost four seconds faster, but a 10-second penalty for two rails down dropped him to sixth overall.
Peter Charles had come close to clinching the earlier Kerrygold two-phase with Jerome, but he met up with one better in the closing stages when he was pipped at the post by Frenchman Patrice Delaveau on the Dutch-bred stallion Lotus XV.
Delaveau had finished second behind compatriot Gilles Bertran de Balanda in Wednesday's main class, the Kerrygold Classic, but yesterday it was his turn to claim the spotlight when Lotus ignored the slippery underfoot conditions to clock the winning time, slicing off €1,700 from Peter Charles' payout in the process.