HOW do you put 25 Group 1 wins into context? A world record?

When Librisa Breeze won the British Champions Sprint Stakes at Ascot on Saturday, he brought up Dean Ivory’s first Group 1 win. Dean Ivory is a top trainer, he trained Miss George to win a listed race at Lingfield in 2004, yet he had to wait another 13 years for his first Group 1.

He trained Sirius Prospect and Caspian Prince and he went close to landing a Group 1 with Tropics, who was beaten a nose by Muhaarar in the 2015 July Cup. That was gutting. That’s how elusive Group 1 wins are, but it does give some sort of perspective to 25 in a year.

It’s a world record. Run a hundred metres in 9.58 seconds, jump over a bar that is two and a half metres high, run a marathon in two hours and two and a half minutes. That’s the context.

THE MANAGER

You always hear Aidan O’Brien refer to the team. He means it, of course, he name-checks them: all the people who were happy with the horse in the lead up to the race. What he doesn’t tell you is that it is he who is responsible for the team.

It is Aidan himself who has assembled the team, who has picked the members, who manages the team, who determines the culture of the team. The trainer probably can’t groom or wash or feed every horse, and he certainly can’t ride every winner, in the same way as the manager can’t win the ball or stick it in the back of the net.

But it is the manager who is responsible for the team. It is the manager who has picked the team and who has managed the players and who has put it all together. That’s Aidan O’Brien.