CIAN O'Connor chalked up Ireland's first top five place at the five-star show in Helsinki, Finland tonight (Saturday) ahead of Sunday's big Rolex World Cup class, the second in the new series.

Though fellow Irish rider Billy Twomey has been recording top ten finishes at Helsinki since international competitions kicked off on Friday, O'Connor is the first to break into the top five.

Riding his new bay gelding Carpe Diem, the 31 year-old came home clear in the night's feature class, but five seconds adrift of Belgian winner Ludo Philippaerts and the black stallion Tauber van het Kapelhof.

Denis Lynch, who finished fifth in the first leg of the 2011/2012 World Cup series at Oslo last weekend, is also at Helsinki and will be hoping to equal or better his place tomorrow to add valuable points to his overall ranking.

The Rolex FEI World Cup competition begins at 1.45pm, Irish time.

Cian O'Connor