Dermott Lennon scored the biggest win of his international career when scooping the Grand Prix at the Pavarotti International in Modena, Italy, yesterday.
Riding Terence Harvey's 10-year-old Touchdown mare Liscalgot, the Co Down rider had the best of a nine-way jump-off to lift the £55,000 winner's cheque in a tight finish.
Drawn sixth to go against the clock, Lennon had pathfinder Markus Merschformann's target time of 43.88 seconds to aim for and a brilliant turn inside the piano to the fourth - which had earlier scuppered the hopes of Ireland's other finalist Peter Charles - gave him the edge he needed.
With the mare jumping superbly, Lennon had her home through the finish flags eight tenths of a second to the good and no-one else came near.
The Irish victory was particularly sweet after Friday's Nations Cup result when Ireland's quartet went down to the Germans only on the clock.
Amazingly this was Ireland's third Grand Prix win in 48 hours. Army rider Lieutenant David O'Brien had got the ball rolling when scoring in Lisbon with Boherdeal Clover on Friday, young Robert Power followed suit in France yesterday afternoon when claiming the seven-year-old Grand Prix at Bourg en Bresse with Gypsy de Bacon before Dermott Lennon completed the hat-trick in Italy.
Pavarotti International Grand Prix: 1, Ireland's Liscalgot (Dermott Lennon); 2, Germany's Camirez B (Markus Merschformann); 3, Germany's Concetto (Meredith Michaels-Beerbaum); 4, Germany's Chandra (Soren von Ronne); 5, Italy's Lux Z (Jerry Smit); 6, Belgium's Alco (James Peeters); 9, Ireland's Traxdata Carnavelly (Peter Charles).