John Gosden was asked recently to reflect on what is turning into Aidan O'Brien's greatest season. "I have enormous respect for the quality of the horses and the superb training of them," Britain's top trainer said. It was a typically fluent statement. O'Brien receives a couple of hundred of the best bred raw material every year and trains them outstandingly well. It's a combination which makes him a statistical phenomenon. The combination is also inextricably linked.

Winning a Group 1 on Laurens last Friday was the culmination of over 20 years of hard work and dreaming and while it has been a long road, it was one worth travelling.