Andy Newton
Having fired in a record 96 Royal Ascot winners over the years, then most Aidan O’Brien Royal Ascot runners will get plenty of attention.
Ahead of the 2026 five-day meeting the Ballydoyle handler has a stack of big chances.
Including Scandinavia in the Ascot Gold Cup, Precise in the Coronation Stakes and Confucius in the Coventry Stakes – a race O’Brien’s won a remarkable 11 times.
So, don’t miss the Aidan O’Brien Royal Ascot runners and stable tour interview with Emmet Kennedy on The Final Furlong Podcast with bundles of ‘golden nugget’ info to take into the fixture.
Aidan O’Brien Royal Ascot Runners Guide 2026 Includes
🏆 The most successful trainer in Royal Ascot history joins us for an exclusive preview
🎩 Ryan Moore’s likely Coventry ride
📝Running plans for exciting 2yos Confucius, Great Barrier Reef, Carry The Flag, Sergei Diaghilev, Aix La Chapelle, Sun Goddess and Victorious
🥇Scandinavia in the Gold Cup
⚡Why Albert Einstein can bounce back
🌟Latest on True Love, Precise, Gstaad & Minnie Hauk
🎯Plus Aidan names the handicapper he thinks is on a good mark
🎧 Listen now on Apple Podcasts, Spotify and all Podcast Platforms
You can also listen to the The Final Furlong Podcast during Royal Ascot week.
As Emmet Kennedy and the team, including Andy Newton, Peter Michael, George Gorman, Jaime Wrenn and Adam Mills preview the action each day, with race guides, big fancies and NAPs.
Aidan O’Brien – A Royal Ascot Legend
Few trainers have dominated Royal Ascot quite like Aidan O’Brien.
The Ballydoyle maestro is the most successful trainer in the history of the meeting, with 96 winners to his name and a record that continues to grow year-after-year.
Since saddling his first Royal Ascot winner with Harbour Master in 1997, O’Brien has become a familiar figure in the winner’s enclosure, collecting multiple leading trainer titles and rewriting the festival record books along the way.
Many of the greatest horses to pass through Ballydoyle have produced memorable Royal Ascot victories.
Legendary horses such as Giant’s Causeway, Rock Of Gibraltar, Yeats, So You Think, Minding, Highland Reel, Love and Auguste Rodin all struck at the royal meeting, while more recent stars including Paddington and Kyprios further enhanced O’Brien’s reputation on racing’s biggest stage.
Paddington’s commanding success in the 2023 St James’s Palace Stakes was particularly significant as it brought up O’Brien’s record-breaking 83rd Royal Ascot winner, moving him clear as the meeting’s most successful trainer.
O’Brien’s success has come across every division, from top-class juveniles in races like the Coventry Stakes to elite middle-distance performers and staying stars in the Gold Cup.
His remarkable record includes multiple victories in some of Royal Ascot’s most prestigious contests, including the St James’s Palace Stakes, Gold Cup and Prince of Wales’s Stakes.
With Ballydoyle continuing to produce a steady stream of talent each season, O’Brien heads to every Royal Ascot with a squad capable of adding yet more chapters to one of the greatest training records the sport has ever seen.
Aidan O’Brien – What Has Been His Best Royal Ascot Race?
When it comes to Royal Ascot, no race has been kinder to Aidan O’Brien than the Coventry Stakes.
The six-furlong Group 2 for two-year-olds has long been a launching pad for future stars, and the Ballydoyle trainer has made it his own.
O’Brien has won the race a record 11 times, more than any other trainer, underlining his remarkable ability to produce top-class juveniles ready to perform on one of racing’s biggest stages.
The Coventry love affair began in 1997 when Harbour Master provided O’Brien with not only his first Coventry Stakes winner, but also his first-ever Royal Ascot success.
Coventry Stakes Winners For Aidan O’Brien
Since then, a host of high-class youngsters have followed in his footsteps, including Fasliyev (1999), Landseer (2001), Statue Of Liberty (2002), Henrythenavigator (2007), Power (2011), War Command (2013), Caravaggio (2016), Arizona (2019), River Tiber (2023), Camille Pissarro (2024) and Gstaad (2025).
Several went on to become Group 1 winners and Classic performers, with Henrythenavigator, Power and Caravaggio among the standout names to emerge from the race.
Of all his Coventry winners, Caravaggio is often regarded as one of the most impressive. The unbeaten colt dazzled Ascot crowds in 2016 before later landing the Commonwealth Cup at the same venue.
Henrythenavigator developed into one of Europe’s leading milers, winning both the English and Irish 2,000 Guineas, while River Tiber and Gstaad ensured O’Brien’s dominance of the race has continued into the modern era.
Given Ballydoyle’s exceptional production line of precocious talent, it is little surprise that the Coventry Stakes remains the race most closely associated with Royal Ascot’s most successful trainer.
This year, O’Brien’s main Coventry Stakes hopes look to be recent Naas winner Confucius and Great Barrier Reef, who won the Group Three Kilkea Castle Marble Hill Stakes at the Curragh last time out.
WATCH: Gstaad Winning The 2025 Coventry Stakes at Royal Ascot
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