Aidan O’Brien chasing down Michael Stoute’s Royal Ascot record

Aidan O’Brien is all but sure to become Royal Ascot’s most successful trainer when the world-renowned race meeting gets under way next week.

Having rewritten so many racing records during a stellar 30-year career, the Irish man has a new one in his sights at British flat racing’s showpiece event.

With 81 Royal Ascot winners under his belt, O’Brien needs one more to tie Michael Stoute’s all-time record haul.

Given the depth of talent being readied at Ballydoyle, Stoute might be forgiven for looking over his shoulder like Indiana Jones in the famous boulder-chase scene.

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Bookmakers too could be on the run and make O’Brien a warm favourite to secure a 12th leading trainer award next week.

His team includes leading Group One lights such as Irish Guineas hero Paddington in the St James’s Palace Stakes and Little Big Bear in the Commonwealth Cup.

Luxembourg is also at the top of the betting for the Prince Of Wales’s Stakes while a bumper two-year-old team includes probable Coventry Stakes contender River Tiber.

It was in the 1997 Coventry that O’Brien first got off the mark at Ascot with the Christy Roche-ridden Harbour Master.

The Master of Ballydoyle saddled a handful of winners at last year’s meeting that included Kyprios in the Gold Cup.

However, his best haul for the five-day extravaganza was the seven winners secured in 2016. That tied the record for a single meeting with the late Henry Cecil who managed the feat in 1987 when racing took place over four days.

With Kyprios on the injury sidelines, the filly Emily Dickinson appears to be O’Brien’s main hope for a ninth success in the 2½-mile marathon next Thursday.

Ground conditions will be of importance for all Ascot participants although a mixed weather outlook makes for uncertain prospects.

Ascot’s clerk of the course Chris Stickels is trying to interpret several forecasts that give differing weather pictures over the coming week.

The track has been bereft of any significant rainfall in recent weeks and although isolated thunderstorms are forecast at the Berkshire venue until Tuesday morning, temperatures are set to remain high in the coming days.

“We are very happy with where we are. The track is in lovely condition. The grass coverage is lovely and thick and it is a nice racing surface. At the moment we are just maintaining it so we can apply more water if we need to closer to the event. The forecast is tricky because we may get thunderstorms later today, then drier weather, then maybe a slightly trickier week next week,” said Stickels on Monday.

“There are varying scenarios at the moment. Different models are giving us different information, but it will not be a settled week next week. It makes things more complicated when the forecast isn’t settled. From tomorrow there will be daily going updates. Going stick readings will be taken tomorrow, then on Friday, then every day from Sunday. We will be monitoring the situation and updating things.

“We have been watering every day. At present, we are a mixture of good, good to firm, and firm, depending on where we are with our watering.

“We haven’t had rain for months. You’d be rock hard if we didn’t water, but we are very happy with where we are at the moment,” he added.

The St James’s Palace Stakes is one of the opening day Group One highlights and features a clash of the Guineas winners in Paddington and Chaldean who emerged on top at Newmarket.

The unknown factor in the mile highlight looks like Cicero’s Gift, unbeaten in three starts, and about to be pitched in at the deep end by trainer Charlie Hills.

Despite only landing a conditions event at Goodwood last time, Cicero’s Gift, a son of Muhaarar, is generally third favourite to upset the headline acts.

“He has improved with every run he’s had. Mentally, he has taken a bit of a while to come to himself. Last year we were nice and patient with him. Physically he has strengthened up. His is a nice-looking horse, similar to his dad, probably a little bit bigger version. It is hard to know where we stack up against the others, as we have come through a different route but, hopefully, he will run well,” said Hills.

Orazio is a general 8-1 favourite for one of next week’s big handicap prizes, the Wokingham over six furlongs, and won’t mind any ease in the going.

“He would have a good chance, I would have thought. I think there is a little bit of rain in the forecast, and any rain wouldn’t go amiss for him. It was nice to get a bit of course-and-distance form last time,” added the Lambourn trainer.