On a day dominated by Frankie Dettori, one of racing's other biggest names made sure he got on the Royal Ascot scoresheet as trainer Aidan O'Brien trained the 1-2-3 in the concluding King George V Handicap on Thursday.

The 22/1 shot South Pacific (Seamie Heffernan) led home stable companions Constantinople (11/2, Ryan Moore) and Eminence (25/1 Wayne Lordan) with a neck success in the 12-furlong contest.

O'Brien, recording his 69th winner at the Royal meeting and fourth this week, said: "South Pacific is a lovely horse who is progressing all the time. He was a bit babyish, but he is coming along lovely. Seamus gave him a lovely ride and he was very happy going a mile and a half. He is progressing with every run and I think he will get further than a mile and a half in time.

"Constantinople is only a baby. For him to do that with top-weight, we could not be happier and Eminence is another big horse who ran well and is still progressing.

"They ran off nice marks, all three of them, and they will continue to progress. We can probably keep them to handicap company for the time and see how they continue to develop."

Heffernan said: "I wasn't always confident that I was going to get there but, in fairness to the horse, he dug deep.

"Aidan trains them all for this week, but you never really know what the ground is going to be like or the draw. They all come here with a big chance - some of the favourites get beat and some of them win.

"I am very privileged to be in these colours and it's a pleasure riding these horses. Some of them are a work in progress; some of them have proven that they are on the way down. Here are a couple who are on the way up.

"I was going to go in but then I thought there were too many with chances, so I took a chance switching out. Ryan switched in and I switched out. You need a brave horse to switch out and keep going because most horses, when they switch out, they don't often finish, but he did."