Tommy Wade, chef d'équipe of Ireland's A team, has two major goals in mind for the second half of the season - a matching set of medals. One he hopes will come from next month's world equestrian games in Spain, to go with the gold from last year's European championships, and, more immediately, a win on home soil in Friday's Aga Khan Cup at the Kerrygold Horse Show, which begins at the RDS in Dublin today.
Seven nations will be lining out for Friday's €55,000 team decider. Wade will want to erase memories of last year's disaster when, with the applause from the European championship medal ceremony still ringing in their ears, the quartet of Peter Charles, Kevin Babington, Jessica Kurten and Dermott Lennon crashed to fourth in front of the home crowd as the Belgians recorded their first-ever win at Dublin.
It was a devastating downfall after the record-breaking 10 Nations Cup wins - including Dublin - in the Millennium Samsung series and the first-ever taste of team success at the European show jumping championships six weeks before the 2001 Horse Show.
But Tommy Wade is determined that things will be different this time and that it will be the Irish team standing four-square in front of the President, Mrs McAleese, on Friday afternoon to collect the coveted gold trophy.
The tune-up en route to Dublin and the world games in Jerez began at Hickstead a fortnight ago when Cian O'Connor produced the only double clear of the class in the British Nations Cup, although the Irish succumbed on the clock - by a mere 1.24 of a second - to the all-conquering Germans.
O'Connor is currently leading rider in the Samsung rankings, and his Hickstead partner, Waterford Crystal, tops the leading horse table. The 22-year-old Co Kildare rider finally gets his first Dublin cap on Friday, having been left on the subs' bench 12 months ago, and is determined to put in another class performance to clinch his place on the world games squad, which will be named next week.
Three of the winning European championship team - Peter Charles, Kevin Babington and Dermott Lennon - make up the Dublin squad, with German-based Jessica Kurten missing the Kerrygold fixture in favour of the national championships in Mannheim this weekend for sponsors Team Aegon.
The opposition on Friday will be made up of traditional rivals Britain, who flunked to fourth on home ground at Hickstead, defending champions Belgium, France, Italy, Switzerland and Holland, but the Irish are expected to start as favourites to carry off the title.
The cosmopolitan flavour will be boosted by individual riders from the US and Spain, to create a nine-nation field for the non-team classes that run throughout the week. There's plenty of incentive to compete, with €255,000 on offer from the Irish Dairy Board in the international classes, but one individual - Francis Connors from Waterford - is in line for a €25,000 bonus if he can add this afternoon's Kerrygold Classic to his win in the Dún Laoghaire Grand Prix with Cruiseway on Monday.