EVEN with one day and seven runners still to come, Royal Ascot 2023 will surely go down as a memorable one for the record-breaking Aidan O’Brien, who became the Royal Meeting’s most successful trainer of all time this week.

Success for Paddington in the St James’s Palace Stakes on Tuesday saw the legendary handler eclipse Sir Michael Stoute at the head of the Royal Meeting’s all-time trainer standings with 83 winners - a record nine of which came in the same Group 1 contest.

Come the close of play on Friday, O’Brien was on three winners for the week, but it was the general consistency of his string’s performances throughout the first four days that really showed the Co Tipperary operation in a strong light.

River Tiber got O’Brien and the Coolmore partners up and running at the first attempt on Tuesday when the hugely-exciting Wootton Bassett colt extended his unbeaten record to three wins in the Coventry Stakes - delivering spectacularly as the sole Ballydoyle representative in the line-up.

Speaking of records, the most successful trainer of all-time in British classics was bringing his Coventry Stakes haul to an unparalleled 10 wins.

When asked where River Tiber stacks up among his previous winners of the race - including Henrythenavigator (2007) and Caravaggio (2016) - O’Brien suggested the 2023 hero was his very best.

Warm Heart, who hadn’t exactly set the world alight when beaten nine and a half lengths on her sole two-year-old start at Dundalk last November, continued her impressive rise through the ranks with a commanding win in the Ribblesdale Stakes.

It was O’Brien’s fourth win in the last 10 runnings of the Group 2 prize, while he also supplied the second in two other runnings during that period.

The sheer numbers of his success at the Royal Meeting are staggering, and - given he doesn’t turn 54 until October - it’s highly likely O’Brien will rip up the record books plenty more before he calls time on his career some way down the road.

Rattling the crossbar

What has been a fine week’s work could easily have been shaping into one of unprecedented success but for a few near misses, though. Little Big Bear was denied back-to-back Royal Ascot wins when runner-up in the Commonwealth Cup, coming up short against a freakishly good performance from Shaquille.

Matrika ran a huge race on only her second career start to fill the same position in the Albany Stakes behind Porta Fortuna, and Bolshoi Ballet wasn’t beaten far in his bid to revitalise his career in the Wolferton Stakes.

Luxembourg and Continuous kept on well in the face of stiff challenges to also finish runner-up in the Prince Of Wales’s Stakes and King Edward VII Stakes respectively, while Johannes Brahms found just one too good in the Windsor Castle Stakes - a 23-runner contest in which the only other O’Brien representative, Alabama, finished a creditable fifth (winning his group).

For good measure, Ryan Moore felt His Majesty was an unlucky loser in the Norfolk Stakes when winning his group on the near side but proving unable to match 150/1 winner Valiant Force.

Bertinelli was beaten by just a length and a half in the King George V Stakes and Emily Dickinson probably ran close to her very best when fourth in the Gold Cup.

If things had fallen differently with some of his nearer-misses, O’Brien might well be on the cusp of breaking the record for most winners in a single week at Royal Ascot heading into the final day of the Berkshire spectacular today.

He and the late Sir Henry Cecil already hold the post-war record of seven winners at a single Royal Meeting.

Day five contenders

All in all, come the end of Friday’s action, O’Brien had sent out three winners, six seconds, a third and four fourths from a total of 22 runners this week. There are still live chances to come today too.

Pearls And Rubies has a favourite’s chance in the opening Chesham Stakes (2.30) and Leopardstown debut third Content is a decent second-string bullet to be firing at the same contest.

The Antarctic must have a real chance in the Jersey Stakes (3.05) if he manages to see out the seven-furlong test for the first time, while Changingoftheguard could be overpriced in the Hardwicke Stakes (4.20).

Recent Navan premier handicap scorer Canute will be vying for favouritism to deny Frankie Dettori a farewell winner at Royal Ascot in the Golden Gates Stakes (5.35). His mark of 93 might still be lenient.

Speaking after his first success of the week, O’Brien insisted: “You never expect to have any winner here, that’s the truth. It’s a relief and I’m so delighted for everyone because they place so much on this week through the whole year.”

Given how his string performed to an extremely high level throughout the most prestigious week in the international flat calendar, O’Brien and his team very much delivered on their major annual target.

It hasn’t been far off notching up a truly record-shattering Royal Meeting either.