One of the most eagerly awaited weeks in the flat racing calendar lived up to expectations as Royal Ascot served up a feast of outstanding action, in which the Irish raiding party played a central role.

It was a superb week for Aidan O’Brien in particular, who notched up five victories to secure the leading trainer title for the sixth time. The Ballydoyle trainer’s ability to produce his inmates in peak form for weeks like this simply cannot be underestimated and, remarkably, 12 of his 18 runners over the five days finished in the first four.

Heading a memorable meeting for O’Brien was Gleneagles, who cemented his position as this season’s stellar three-year-old miler with a dominant display in the St James’s Palace Stakes. Gleneagles laboured somewhat in last month’s Irish 2000 Guineas but he showed what he is capable of at Ascot and his first test against his elders is eagerly awaited. It will take quite an effort from the older division if his colours are to be lowered this year.

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The training performance of the week came from Dermot Weld in producing Free Eagle to win the Prince Of Wales’s Stakes. This hugely talented but lightly raced four-year-old had been restricted to just four career outings prior to last Wednesday and he hadn’t run since October. Furthermore, he had suffered an interrupted preparation in the lead-up to Ascot which makes his effort all the more meritorious. From the moment he made his highly impressive winning debut as a two-year-old, Free Eagle looked a top-drawer colt and he more than delivered on that potential last week.

On the two-year-old front, there was plenty of cause for encouragement from Aidan O’Brien’s perspective. He won the Norfolk Stakes with Waterloo Bridge and the Windsor Castle with Washington DC – both colts from the first crop of Zoffany, who also sired the Albany Stakes heroine, Illuminate – while Air Force Blue ran a fine race to take second in the Coventry Stakes. All of which is a significant pointer to the strength of their trainer’s formidable juvenile team.

Elsewhere, Curvy’s progress through the ranks has been one of the stories of the season and she maintained her improvement by capturing the Ribblesdale Stakes for David Wachman. This filly was rated a mere 72 when winning a Navan handicap at the start of the season but she has come a long way since then and looked better than ever in defeating Pleascach in the Ribblesdale. It would be a truly incredible story if she were to continue her winning sequence in this weekend’s Dubai Duty Free Irish Derby.

The long reach of the Willie Mullins yard once again extended to Ascot as Clondaw Warrior, a seemingly forlorn hope at one stage of the race, benefited from a vintage Ryan Moore ride to claim the Ascot Stakes. This dual-purpose runner is another that has made dramatic progress as he was rated just 52 when winning a first flat race at Tramore last August.