Aidan O’Brien’s potential Royal Ascot runners

The excitement is building as Royal Ascot gets ready to kick off on Tuesday. The five-day extravaganza isn’t to be missed as some of the most talented horses from all over the world take each other on in some of the season’s biggest races.

Aidan O’Brien is synonymous with winners at Royal Ascot and the Irishman is the current record holder with 91 winners as a trainer. It won’t be long before he hits the 100-mark and he will have plenty of chances to get closer at 2026’s Royal meeting.

The master of Ballydoyle cleaned up in the two-year-old department last year, winning the Coventry Stakes with Gstaad, Queen Mary with True Love and the Norfolk Stakes with Charles Darwin. It’ll be interesting to see which juveniles he sends over this year.

Precise - Coronation Stakes (4/7)

It’s easy to see why Precise is the ante-post favourite for the Coronation Stakes, having landed the Irish 1000 Guineas in good style last time out.

She gained revenge on stablemate True Love, who had previously got the better of her at Newmarket, and has clearly improved for the run.

You would imagine that Precise will confirm the form on this occasion, as she’s a much stronger stayer over a mile.

There could be more to come from her this term, as she was progressive last season and ended up winning back-to-back Group 1s.

Gstaad - St James’s Palace Stakes (11/4)

A Royal Ascot winner for O’Brien last term, Gstaad landed the Coventry Stakes with a very impressive performance.

He returned to winning ways in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf on his final start at two, providing his first top-level success and proving his stamina for a mile.

The 2000 Guineas hasn’t gone to plan for O’Brien in the last few years but Gstaad ran an excellent race to finish second in the Newmarket Classic earlier this year. Well clear of the third that day, he went on to win the Irish 2000 Guineas with a dominant display at the Curragh.

It looks like Bow Echo could be very special and it’ll be tricky to reverse the Newmarket form with him but you should never be afraid of one horse and Gstaad goes there with every chance.

Scandinavia - Gold Cup (5/4) 

There isn’t a trainer in the world with a better record of training Gold Cup winners than Aidan O’Brien and there are plenty of reasons to be excited about Scandinavia this term.

The four-year-old came out on top in the St Leger at Doncaster in September. Perhaps more importantly, he won the Group 1 Goodwood Cup as a three-year-old, getting the better of his elders, and that bodes very well for a big run as he tries 2m4f for the first time.

Another year older now, he should be a little stronger and his profile screams ‘Gold Cup winner’.

Great Barrier Reef - Coventry Stakes (5/1)

O’Brien has won two of the last three renewals of the Coventry Stakes and he looks well set to take it again with the very promising Great Barrier Reef.

This son of No Nay Never is unbeaten in two starts so far and was particularly impressive on debut at the Curragh.

It remains to be seen if the form works out but he got the job done in good style, scoring by six lengths, and managed to follow up in the Group 3 Marble Hill Stakes.

There could well be more to come and the biggest danger appears to be stablemate Confucius. 

This article was written by a partner sports writer via Spotlight Sports Group. All odds displayed on this page were correct at the time of writing and are subject to withdrawal or change at any time.