Ascot`s Royal Enclosure is reserved, mainly, for toffs, and excesses: Royal Ascot`s winner`s enclosure is reserved for success. It is monopolized by the O`Brien family, father Aidan, eldest son Joseph with youngest sibling Donnacha, lurking. The Irish Coolmore operation orchestrated by O`Brien senior, dominates the UK`s domestic scene and their success travels worldwide.

Inevitably Aidan O`Brien was the man to beat at this latest Royal meeting over five days in the month of June. Joseph beat his father, and all other-comers, five times but O`Brien Senior claimed his fourteenth Royal meeting title with seven successes: the next generation must wait their turn. Nobody else looks capable of turning the Coolmore tide. Godolphin`s almost total absence (including the ‘boss` Sheikh Mohammed) had the sticking plaster of one winner – albeit a stand out with Ombudsman (Night of Thunder) from twenty- three runners. And the biggest spender of all, football agent Kir Joorabchian`s Amo Racing`s score was nought from twenty-four.

Other things at the Royal meeting, attended daily by King Charles III and Queen Camilla, do not change. Strict dress regulations corral the attendance into enclosures for the elite, and the hoi-polloi - Ancient Greek for the unwashed masses.

At Ascot the dividing line is between those sweltering in formal Morning suits and top hats; ladies in their haute couture finery; and the masses typically awash with drink and who helped swell the crowd figure to 71,610 for the finale on day five, bringing the meeting total to 294,541, a small increase on last year. There were 634 runners across the week, bettering the previous record of 602. The Derby, a fortnight previous, attended by just over 40,000, would have tossed their dress code away for such figures.

But Royal Ascot wouldn`t be the world attraction that it is without the trimmings. “Dresses of a modest length; straps a minimum one-inch wide, visible midriffs explicitly (no room appeal) forbidden. Trouser suits and jump pants are welcome. Headwear is mandatory”. In more, shall we say ‘forgiving` days of the last century, we put up with the ‘Ascot mascot` Mrs Gertrude Shilling. You just couldn`t forecast what gruesome headgear she would get away with: a huge dice, a giraffe (not a real one), and another creation so wide the main gates had to be thrown open to get it through.

There was then a rampant betting market on the colour of the late Queen`s hat – from 1946 until Her Majesty was no longer able to attend. Those hats were much copied: Mrs Shilling`s half-baked creations were merely grotesque advertising hoardings for her son`s millinery business.

The meeting is a national ritual but the money follows the Irish genius Aidan O`Brien (56). He trained his first winner at the Royal meeting in 1993 – the same year he received his licence, the same year he saddled a winner on his first day training in his own name. That was ten years after Ryan Moore (42) rode his first winner, aged 16. Moore has been O`Brien and Coolmore`s go to rider for the past decade. The top two men of their respective professions are an irresistible force.

O`Brien`s unprecedented century of winners at the Royal meeting came with Scandinavia (Justify) in a record eleventh Gold Cup in as thrilling a contest as the greatest staying race deserves. Moore was at his most determined. He will have to wait until next year though for another three winners to put up his Royal Ascot century but he enters the history books as the jockey who was aboard Aidan O`Brien`s one hundredth Royal Ascot winner!

Scandinavia and Trawlerman, driven by the two jockeys, Moore and William Buick who you`d back to take on the world, were separated by no more than a bobbing head throughout the final furlong of the Gold Cup. When they meet again, probably in the Goodwood Cup, crowds will flock to see the replay.

Ryan Moore was leading jockey again. His first Derby winner for O`Brien was Ruler of the World in 2013. That was squeezed in between Joseph O`Brien riding Camelot and Australia to success in the Epsom Classic. That figure rose to eleven with Christmas Day this year - Epsom was just too close for him to reappear at Ascot though Derby Eighth Ancient Egypt (Frankel) upheld the form when going down, narrowly, in the King Edward VII Stakes (Gr2). Of course that defeat was at the hands of another O`Brien colt, Causeway (Wootton Bassett) whose progress from maiden to handicap to Listed, then Group 3 and now Group 2 is so emblematic of the meticulous planning that the Coolmore camp undertake for each and every runner.

The heraldry of Ballydoyle bears the motto “Consistency: take nothing for granted” not quite the definition most people would give to ‘genius` but attention to fine detail will always trump unbridled flair and other nuanced concepts. And O`Brien has those attributes too. The man is unstoppable.

One lasting tradition, the grandeur of the Royal Carriage travelling from Windsor Castle up the Ascot straight diverted spectators from their carousing to applaud the monarch – if without the quite raucous urgency from over forty thousand throats encouraging the duellists locked in their Gold Cup epic.

Last year Trawlerman had to give best to O`Brien`s Kyprios: this year the now eight-year-old had to give 1lb weight for age to the four-year-old Scandinavia and was beaten a head: they`re the same horse to the handicapper but in photo finishes somehow it`s Coolmore that has that indefinable irresistible something: the last word. Mission Central`s (No Nay Never) victory in Tuesday`s King Charles III Stakes (Gr 1) over five furlongs means O`Brien has now won all of the G1 races run at Royal Ascot.

Even AI is not going to threaten A O`B. Artificial Intelligence which will never have the ‘horse sense` inbred to the genius of Aidan O`Brien. And his statistics – seven winners over the five days equalled another ‘great` the late Sir Henry Cecil`s record. Otherwise O`Brien`s statistics are unmatched. He has only his own records to displace.

Special mention must be made of O`Brien`s filly Precise (Starspangledbanner) who added the Coronation Stakes (Gr1) to her Irish Guineas. She and stablemate True Love (No Nay Never) have swapped places in the English and Irish fillies mile Classic winners: Moore had been on and off Precise; now he wouldn`t swap her for anything.

O`Brien`s vast and all-conquering enterprise is founded on the epic legacy established in former times by the late great Vincent O`Brien (no relation) at Ballydoyle, County Tipperary, Vincent O`Brien – except in the expanse of their genius.

The overwhelming success of Coolmore is admired – if occasionally jealously. Schadenfreude is an established human trait describing the satisfaction felt at the downfall of others – the big, not to say outrageous spenders saddled with a succession of seven figure duds. Godolphin`s retained handler Charlie Appleby is currently in a trough – if not the slough of despond of Amo Racing. Godolphin (no sign of Sheikh Mohammed) had one less loser (twenty-three) though it`s worth repeating their Ombudsman was a star of the show when winning his fourth Group One (he has never been out of the first two). He is handled by the Gosdens, father John and son Thady.

With hardly a contender, the Irish grabbed the headline winners so the media, looking for a fresh angle, tried to stoke up rivalry between Coolmore and the Gosdens dredging up talk of ‘team tactics`. Coolmore were mob-handed in several races and there were some rough contests, bans aplenty but then this was racing in the colosseum, no quarter asked or given. That`s how much Royal Ascot means to gladiators who wouldn`t baulk at being labelled ‘combatants`. It is what makes the meeting pre-eminent in the racing world. Francis-Henri Graffard has carried the French standard successfully round the world, monopolizing top races in his homeland but even he couldn`t get on the score sheet, even with such as Prix de l`Arc de Triomphe laureate Daryz (Sea The Stars) to go to war with – not his day.

Runaway domestic jockey`s title leader Oisin Murphy had to wait until the last day of the five to win on Giavellotto (Master Craftsman) for Italy in the Hardwicke Stakes (Gr2). The horse, another globetrotter, had won the Vase in Hong Kong. Murphy, who guards his strike rate far better than his personal reputation (multiple bans) mused philosophically: “I have tried not to pity myself all week; this is just horses running around a field, obviously on a big occasion, but there are far greater things happening in the world. Try and keep a sense of perspective.”

The world looked on as yet another titanic finish all but raised the immense grandstand roof for the finish of the Queen Elizabeth II Jubilee Stakes, (Gr 1) sprint over six furlongs. Almeraq (Dark Angel) just held on from the placed horses representing Japan, Australia and France. Though William Haggas`s Somerville Lodge operation is not quite so prolific at the highest level as Coolmore, Haggas and his wife Maureen, daughter of Lester Piggott, are the epitome of professionalism. After a fall at York last year which cost jockey Jim Crowley his career, Haggas took time and infinite pains to return Almeraq to this peak. Tributes were paid to the late Hamdan Al Maktoum, Almeraq bred at his Shadwell Stud – and commiserations too to Crowley there to greet this top class sprinter who will be a force in the July Cup (Gr 1).

Waxing lyrical about tremendous examples of jockeyship, thoroughbred brilliance and resilience were never ending themes of the most competitive thirty-five races of the most contested meeting on the planet.

There were some statistics which some might regard as humdrum compared with the heroics on the track – a track which it has to be said seemed biased towards high drawn (stands` side) runners on the straight course. Overall the cream rose to the top with only the occasional aberration – most notably Ten Bob Tony`s (Night of Thunder) 50-1 victory in the opening Queen Anne Stakes, (Gr1). The win was inexplicable: the five-year-old gelding`s first crack ae a mile and at the top level won`t be his last.

Night of Thunder is leading sire at the meeting and over the season. There were four victories for his progeny, three at Group One level – the stand out being Two Thousand Guineas hero Bow Echo in the St James Palace Gr1. The finish to this mile championship was as close as that of the Gold Cup: O`Brien`s Gstaad (Starspangledbanner) got nearer to Bow Echo than he had in the Newmarket Guineas but again the wonder kid trainer of British racing and future champion jockey Billy Loughnane, prevailed.

The sadly deceased Galileo cannot be kept out of the picture. He was maternal grandsire of six of the meeting`s winners, not least with the filly Precise and the four-year-old colt Scandinavia. All of them showed the archetypal Galileo characteristic that he himself exhibited in spades, and has bequeathed to the breed – never give in.

Others will take different precious memories from a meeting which though racing has taken place on the site since 1708 – long before the Derby – only began to establish itself as the nation`s premier race-meeting when the Gold Cup was inaugurated in 1807. Now there is no competition – slightly concerning that Royal Ascot is such a standalone meeting.

Aidan O`Brien having first given credit to his staff – many by name including those back home ‘looking after the shop` said: “It has been a brilliant week. A lot of people have put in a lot of hard work. I`m always mentioning everybody but some people I don`t mention, I`m sorry to them, but I`m so grateful to the whole team for a lot of hard work. Without John and Sue [Magnier], Michael and Doreen [Tabor], Gay and Derrick [Smith], Georg and Emily [von Opel], and Peter [Brant] and Stephanie [Seymour], this wouldn`t be happening.”

These are the ‘Lads` as O`Brien calls his Coolmore ‘bosses` but the ones who get their hands dirty and keep the show on the road are always given their due. Superlatives cascade from O`Brien`s lips; nobody is embarrassed because they are left out. And he deserves the last word. “Our big team at Ballydoyle, Coolmore, in America and Australia – everyone gets their shoulder behind the wheel. Obviously, Ryan does an incredible job riding them, and Wayne and everybody else that rides for us, on the racecourse and at home, exercise riders, work riders – it`s a massive team, plus all the people on the farms and offices, vets and farriers. That`s what makes it happen and we`re so grateful to all of them.

He went on: “I suppose it`s hard to get away from Scandinavia (as the highlight of the meeting). He was incredible. Everyone knows the Gold Cup is the race everyone wants to see and captures everyone`s imagination, and when the two horses lined up in the straight, it was incredible. We were hoping Scandinavia would step up to the plate. He was taking on the champion, who is double his age, and he`s only a baby stayer, so I think everyone got a great thrill out of that.”

Ryan Moore partnered all of O`Brien`s winners except two-year-old Coventry Stakes Gr2 winner Great Barrier Reef (No Nay Never). Wayne Lordan who trumped Moore when bringing home Christmas Island in the Derby had that honour. And if there was one juvenile that Coolmore will be looking over their shoulder at this season it was Orthodox (Havana Grey) who trounced opposition, including the O`Brien favourite in the Norfolk Stakes Gr2.

Lordan is taking his chances, scoring on the Joseph O`Brien-trained Enceladus (Sea The Stars) in the King George V Handicap. Moore though had the last word in Saturday`s final race of the meeting – the long distance Queen Alexandra Stakes on Illinois (Galileo). Next year Moore will start the Royal meeting on ninety-nine winners.

Quiet spoken Moore, he of few words, said: “It does mean plenty, when you win it`s great and when you lose it hurts. I have been on the wrong end of a few photos this Ascot but that`s how it goes. I just keep coming back and take it race by race and day by day.” Asked if he loved winning the Gold Cup, he replied: “Yeah, I`d have liked to have won the St James`s Palace as well!”

Like his boss and the whole Coolmore team – insatiable