O'Brien just keeps on playing the astronomical numbers game and brings up winner number 4,000 at the Curragh

It's an astronomical numbers game for Aidan O'Brien – 4,000 winners, 417 Group or Grade 1s, and 12 National Stakes, and how fitting that it was Henry Longfellow who sealed the deal and brought up the milestone, given 27 years ago in the very same race Desert King provided him with his first success at the top level. 

It’s just over 30 years ago – June 7, 1993 – when Wandering Thoughts got the ball rolling at Tralee. The racecourse has vanished but, boy, the trainer has not.

O'Brien said the first he knew of his latest milestone was when course commentator Jerry Hannon announced it to everyone over the Tannoy. "I promise you, I didn't know until that horse crossed the line that it was our 4,000th winner," he insisted. "I had no idea."