O'Brien brings Paddington out to play as the maestro sets his sights on a seventh British trainers' championship

Guineas weekend seems a lifetime ago now, doesn't it? As Aidan O'Brien squelched his way out of Newmarket with his tail between his legs after all his big guns got stuck in the mud, a seventh British trainers' title looked about as likely as Auguste Rodin winning the Derby. 

Fast forward nine weeks and O'Brien now finds himself sitting pretty in second spot in the table, just £518,233 shy of John and Thady Gosden in the championship, and victory for Paddington in the Coral-Eclipse would erode that deficit further. The race is on, ladies and gentlemen.

O'Brien first did it in 2001, 38 years after Paddy 'Darkie' Prendergast became the first Irish trainer to do it and 35 years on from Vincent O'Brien doing it, and he added titles in 2002, 2007, 2008, 2016 and 2017. He has been runner-up on eight occasions, including three times in a row between 2018 and 2020.