CAMERON Hanley recorded Ireland’s best result of the current European World Cup season, when he finished fourth in the fifth leg of the Longines series at Stuttgart in Germany last Sunday.

Riding the 11-year-old mare Z Acodate DDL, Hanley was one of just five riders to jump clear in the opening round, as a host of the world’s top stars struggled to find the key to a course designed by Belgium’s Luc Musette.

The Mayo rider managed to go clear again in the jump-off, with a time of 52.87 seconds seeing him take fourth place overall.

“I’m delighted with how all my horses jumped at the weekend. Acodate has been getting better and better all season and after jumping a double clear in the Gijon Nations Cup. It’s nice to have her continue her good form indoors, she is an incredibly consistent mare and I’m very lucky to have her,” Hanley commented to The Irish Field, about the daughter of Acord II, owned by Patrick Mielnik.

Germany’s Christian Ahlmann (40) secured a victory for the home crowd when second last to jump with Codex One.

Ahlmann and his 13-year-old stallion crushed the opposition with a devastating turn of speed, crossing the line in 49.78.

Sweden’s Douglas Lindelow had set the jump-off target time and held on for runner-up spot ahead of Germany’s Patrick Stuhlmeyer in third. Hanley second clear round with Z Acodate DDL saw him finish ahead of Frenchman, Patrice Delaveau in fifth place with Lacrimoso 3 HDC.

The first round course initially seemed a little lenient when two of the first three riders jumped clear but there was a sting in the tail, with the final line of fences taking a heavy toll as the competition went on.

Among the starting field of 39 were many superstars of the sport but the list of first-round retirements accounted for a number of them. World and European double-gold medallist, Jeroen Dubbeldam, called it a day with the 10-year-old Classic Man V, while three-time FEI World Cup jumping champions Meredith Michaels-Beerbaum and Marcus Ehning from Germany also retired. Michaels-Beerbaum’s grey Fibonacci, was clearly not firing on all cylinders while Ehning’s Singular LS La Silla was also not on form. Michael Jung, the unchallenged supremo in eventing, set off with Sportsmann S, excitement was short-lived as the pair pulled up after a mistake at fence four.

Britain’s John Whitaker was one of three denied a place in the timed round when exceeding the 73-seconds allowed in an otherwise foot-perfect run with the 10-year-old mare Ornellaia but he secured some valuable points towards the final when taking sixth.

Tipperary’s Denis Lynch finished with eight faults in the first round with Abbervail Van Het Dingeshof.

Ahlmann said afterwards: “I thought I could do it but I had to try everything - I was really focused on being fast enough and I took every risk from jump to jump - it worked really well. I saw exactly what Douglas [Lindelow] did and I knew I couldn’t take less strides, so I just needed to take tighter turns and to go a bit faster,” he explained. Ahlmann is now third on the Western European leaderboard ahead of the sixth leg of the series in Madrid tomorrow (Sunday). Simon Delestre tops the table on 49 points, five ahead of Penelope Leprevost. Hanley collected 13 points for his Stuttgart result, and is now the best-placed Irish rider on the league table.