FIVE lucky readers of The Irish Field were welcomed to the Intercontinental Hotel on Thursday morning to have breakfast with the Aga Khan squad and management team.

Tony Furlong, Angela Hawkins, Liadh Casey, Mary Keohane and Maria Silke won the annual ‘Breakfast with the Stars’ competition and enjoyed meeting Rodrigo Pessoa and his team before the feature event.

All five Aga Khan squad members are also travelling to the FEI European Championships two weeks after Dublin. Speaking on Thursday morning, team member Darragh Kenny, Ireland’s top ranked show jumper, said: “We are all very driven, we are very motivated, and if we can put that together, that is what wins Nations Cups and championships.”

Peter Moloney was the fifth man on Friday’s squad and had experienced somewhat of a breakthrough year. Moloney works for Princess Haya’s Team Harmony and is based in Frankfurt with O’Connor. “I am just very lucky at the moment to have a really nice string of horses. We got Ornellia at the start of the year from John Whitaker. She won a couple of Grands Prix and got us going. Then we got Chianti’s Champion and that has really just turned it inside out. He’s a really really special horse, I am just lucky to have him.”

“I am delighted to be here [in Dublin]. I am delighted that Rodrigo, Gerry (Mullins) and Michael (Blake) gave me a chance this year. Obviously I don’t have as much experience at the others. They have all been very good to me this year, a great help.”

The most capped senior Irish show jumper of recent times, Cian O’Connor, is relishing being back in Dublin and won the Minerva Stakes on Wednesday. “There is just something different when you ride into the ring here, it doesn’t get old. Everyone wants to go their best.”

Speaking about teammate and pupil Peter Moloney, he said: “There is not much helping him, he knows his job, just a few little tips here and there.” And what makes him such a special rider? “He doesn’t open his mouth! I never heard him talking as much as he did just now,” he said with a laugh.

“He’s calm and he’s cool. He doesn’t get nervous, he’s organised and extremely hard working and when we were able to get a horse with the experience of Chianti’s Champion… when you look at their performance in Aachen, they looked like one of the outstanding combinations so hopefully it keeps going for the Europeans.”

Shane Sweetnam was hoping to jump a double clear round with Chaqui Z, his 2018 World Equestrian Games mount. “Chaqui Z was breeding for the last few months. He is a very popular breeding stallion. All these people had been enquiring and Lisa Lourie of Spy Coast Farm, when she bought the horse, that was the deal. She likes to breed her horses so after WEG he went collecting semen. But since he’s been back he has been very very good, he is in great shape.”

Friday marked Paul O’Shea’s second consecutive Aga Khan performance with Skara Glen’s Machu Picchu. “It’s what we’ve been working for a long time to get to this point, so it’s very nice to be here. Machu Picchu is in great form. He feels and looks better than ever. He has a really big heart, he really wants to do his job.”