TUESDAY’S Cartier Awards in London was, as usual, a magnificent evening. They are truly the crème de la crème of awards, celebrating all that is best about racing in Europe.

Since he won his first Cartier Awards in 1999 with Fasliyev and Stravinsky, Ballydoyle maestro Aidan O’Brien has been responsible for horses that have garnered 41 of the distinctive trophies given to connections of the winners. These have included three Horse of the Year accolades.

This year, for the second time only in two decades, no horse trained at Ballydoyle won an award. The only time that happened previously was in 2004 when Aidan saddled ‘only’ three Group 1 winners. This year he has won 14 such races with 13 individual horses, but none was deemed worthy of a trophy.

This says more about how difficult it is to win a Cartier gong than it is a reflection on the quality of Ballydoyle’s winners, as Aidan was responsible for six of the nominees this year.

What it does is put in perspective the achievement it was for John Gosden-trained horses to win five of the eight equine awards, including Horse of the Year for Roaring Lion.

As if this domination was not enough, the five nominees in this category were trained by John and he has now been responsible for the Horse of the Year in four of the last five years, having previously landed it with Kingman, Golden Horn and last year with Enable.

Not that it needs stating in this column, but John Gosden is a genius and ranks among the best ever exponents of his craft.

Another notable feature of the seven horses to get awards was the fact that all bar one of them was a home-bred. Roaring Lion was bought as a yearling in Keeneland.

Juddmonte, the Niarchos Family, Lloyd Webbers, Airlie Stud and Bjorn Nielsen represent what might be termed traditional breeders, with long histories of developing successful families. One of the biggest cheers of the night was for Emma Armstrong, breeder with her husband David of the champion sprinter Mabs Cross.

The Group 1 filly was the couple’s 100th winner in 15 years in the sport, and produced from their first winner Miss Meggy, a 20,000gns yearling purchase who won her first two starts, including a listed race.

That perfect start has now come full circle and given the couple one of their biggest thrills in racing. Mabs Cross becomes their second Group 1 winner bred in Lancashire – disproving cynics who told them it could not be done.