A BREAKDOWN OF AIDAN O'BRIEN'S 26 GROUP/GRADE 1 WINNERS

The genius of Aidan O’Brien was illustrated with a season-defining number on Saturday when Saxon Warrior brought the inevitable to fruition. For a long time it had been a case of 'when' and not 'if' O'Brien would beat the record and rightly the trainer has received plaudits from every corner of the industry.

However this achievement, as O’Brien repeatedly told us, is no one-man show and others have made significant influences.

Ryan Moore rode 19 of the Group 1 winners. A lot of the wins were achieved comfortably but Moore more than earned his crust when he was needed - on Roly Poly in the Prix Rothschild and Capri in the St Leger and again on Saturday, regalvinising Saxon Warrior to take advantage of Roaring Lion’s wayward run. The move to sign up Moore as Ballydoyle’s number one jockey has proved hugely successful for both parties.

It’s interesting that only seven of the 26 Group 1 wins were achieved in Ireland. The same number of wins came at Newmarket (one of the seven was on the July course). O’Brien had three winners in France but as yet this season, hasn’t scored a top level race outside of the three major European jurisdictions.

Going into September O’Brien was only just over halfway to the record with 14 winners. Six of the 12 winners he has trained in September and October were juveniles.

The star player is Winter who contributed four races to the tally. Roly Poly battled her way to an admirable three Group 1 wins while Churchill, Highland Reel, Capri, Hydrangea, Happily and U S Navy Flag all contributed two wins each.

No prizes for guessing who was the most important sire - Galileo with 17 (notwithstanding all the second generation links he has as well).

The shortest price of all 26 winners was Order Of St George, when sent off 2/5 in the Irish St Leger. The biggest price was the 40/1 about Wings Of Eagles in the Derby. Order Of St George also won by the longest winning margin, while the smallest winning margin was Happily’s short head win in the Prix Rothschild.

Most bookmakers were making O’Brien an odds-on shot to reach 30 Group 1 winners but that potential landmark was moved further away when Saint-Cloud’s card, hosting two Group 1 races, was hijacked by a group of protesters on Sunday. France Galop have since announced that the races will not be rescheduled and, for O’Brien, that is a shame. He had a strong hand in both.

However he still has lots of chances - 13 in all at the Breeders’ Cup and there are more options in Hong Kong and Australia. The season isn’t finished yet.

ANOTHER O'BRIEN MAKING HIS NAME

On the same afternoon Aidan O’Brien was setting a new world record at Doncaster, back at Leopardstown, another O’Brien was making a name for himself, albeit on a much smaller scale.

Richard O’Brien sent out his 12th winner of the season when Beach Bar took a seven-furlong handicap in comfortable fashion. The 12 winners O’Brien has had have come from just 75 runs and perhaps more significantly have come from just six runners.

Like the other five winners, Beach Bar had made the move to O’Brien’s stable from another yard and had shown improved form for the switch which is the most clearcut sign of the talents of any trainer.

O’Brien’s biggest success story this season has been Tom Dooley, who moved to his yard from John Feane. The six-year-old was rated 46 when he came to the Limerick trainer and has since won four times alleviating his rating to 63.

Alans Pride (improved from 52 to 73), Indian Tomahawk (48 to 56) and Patrick (80 to 88) are three more examples of horses whose form has picked up since coming under O’Brien’s care.

MAIDEN GROUP 1 FOR MARTIN AND KEANE

It was great to see Tony Martin and Colin Keane attain a first Group 1 winner with the mare Laganore winning the Premio Lydia Tesio at Capannelle in Rome on Sunday. It’s been just short of 12 months since Martin’s Heartbreak City finished an agonisingly close second in the Melbourne Cup, which would have given the Meath trainer a Group 1 win on one of the grandest stages in world racing.

And while Capannelle does not exactly match the glitz and glam of a Melbourne Cup, a Group 1 is a Group 1 and Laganore’s already high stud value was significantly increased.

Martin has long shown his talents at training horses on the flat and over jumps and now he has a top level winner in each sphere. For Keane, this was the icing on a magic season and a well deserved maiden Group 1. Barring a monumental effort from Pat Smullen, the 23-year-old will be crowned Irish champion jockey at Naas on Sunday. He will be just the ninth jockey to achieve that feat since 1983.