Auguste Rodin seals 400th top-tier win for O'Brien

Auguste Rodin triumphed at Royal Ascot under Ryan Moore to give trainer Aidan O'Brien his 400th top-level Group or Grade One win on the Flat.

The 13-8 favourite, winner of the English and Irish Derbys last year, held off French challengers Zarakem and Horizon Dore to win the Prince of Wales's Stakes.

After an earlier victory with Illinois, it sealed a double for O’Brien and Moore - who has equalled Frankie Dettori’s mark of 81 winners at the meeting.

Moore and Dettori are the leading active jockeys at the Ascot fixture, while the late Lester Piggott holds the all-time record of 116 victories.

It was a sixth Group One success for Auguste Rodin, who claimed Irish Champion Stakes and Breeders’ Cup wins last season but also suffered lacklustre defeats in the 2,000 Guineas and King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Stakes.

“He’s a fantastic horse. A few times it hasn’t happened, but there were reasons every time,” said Moore.

Moore had secured his 80th Royal Ascot victory as 7-4 favourite Illinois won the Queen’s Vase from Highbury in a 1-2 for trainer O’Brien.

It was an eighth win in the race for O’Brien, which matches the record of Sir Henry Cecil.

Big-spending owners Wathnan Racing - headed by Sheikh Tamim, the emir of Qatar - bought several horses for Ascot in the build-up to the meeting and struck in Wednesday’s opening Queen Mary Stakes.

The 22-1 chance Leovanni, trained by Karl Burke, stormed clear in the final furlong under James Doyle, with Gavin Cromwell’s 50-1 chance Mighty Eriu in second.

Running Lion (6-1) gave jockey Oisin Murphy his second victory of the 2024 meeting in the Duke Of Cambridge Stakes.

Trainers John and Thady Gosden had the first two home, with the grey winning from stablemate Laurel, who was returning from a 396-day absence.