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From Paddy Prendergast, Vincent O'Brien, and Phonsie O'Brien in the swinging Sixties to the modern-day juggernaut of Ballydoyle, Royal Ascot has proved a happy hunting ground for Ireland's Green Team, writes James Toney.

Indeed, in the last 50 years, there have been 149 Irish trainer winners, with a record 12 in 2023, saddled by eight different trainers, underlining Irish racing's strength in depth.

Jessica Harrington and Colin Keane

She's the Queen of Racing, so, of course, Jessica Harrington has an eye-catching record at Royal Ascot. She's a two-time winner of the Group One Coronation Stakes, with Alpha Centauri scoring her first winner in 2018, ridden by Colm O'Donoghue. 

"I was an absolute bag of nerves before that race," she recalls. "We knew she was very good, but we'd flown under the radar to win the Irish Guineas a few weeks earlier. That day there was lots of pressure; we were the favourite and everyone was shooting at us." 

Villanova Queen secured Harrington's fourth win in 2023, with Irish Champion Jockey Colin Keane in the saddle for his first success, a brilliant ride that saw him soar from the back of the field to the front in a breathless whoosh.

Colin Keane said: "It's the biggest stage for us; you come here year after year just hoping for one winner. I'd hit the frame a couple of times, going down by a nose or head, and it was a real weight off the shoulders to finally get that into the parade ring as a winner. It was a very, very sweet feeling."

Aidan O'Brien

Aidan O'Brien has won a record 85 races at the meeting, moving ahead of Sir Michael Stoute on the all-time training list. He won the meeting's top trainer title for the first time in 2001 and last year bested his rivals across the five days to bring up success number 12. 

While the brilliant three-time Gold Cup Yeats has provided him with his greatest memories, his first win was back in 1997 when jockey Christy Roche piloted Harbour Master to victory in the Coventry Stakes. 

O'Brien shares the record with Sir Henry Cecil for the most winners in a single meeting, securing seven in 2016, and you need to go back to 2003 for the last time the Ballydoyle battalions returned home empty-handed.

Oisin Murphy

Oisin Murphy has won 11 races at Ascot, including five in 2021 when he took the top jockey prize for the first time. His first win was back in 2017 when Benbatl secured the Hampton Court Stakes for Godolphin trainer Saeed bin Suroor, a moment the three-time British Champion Jockey describes as one of the greatest of his career. 

"Royal Ascot is very special, and that first winner, you'll just never forget it," he recalls. "I don't celebrate very often, but that one meant the world to me. 

“It builds up in your mind, and you're just trying to get it out of the way and the monkey off your back. That first Royal Ascot winner is a thrill and relief, and it's fantastic to do it. It was beyond my wildest dreams to be top jockey in 2021. I watched this meeting with my parents and never thought that armband belonged with me."

Johnny Murtagh

Johnny Murtagh rode 43 winners as a jockey, but few things made him quite as emotional as his first training success when Create Belief annihilated the Sandringham Stakes field by an impressive 5½ lengths in 2021. 

While Ascot can be a place where money makes the difference, Murtagh's charge, in the colours of the Racecourse Club syndicate, was a bargain buy. 

He recalls: “She cost me €70; how many people can say they bought a racehorse for that and then led it into the winners' enclosure at Royal Ascot? Training a Royal Ascot winner means the world to me and all the team. It's a day we will never forget; everything about it was marvellous."

Dermot Weld

Fifty years of being competitive in elite sport is a claim to fame not many have, but Dermot Weld is not just any racing trainer. 

In 2023, he won his 18th Royal Ascot race when the brilliant filly Tahiyra won the Coronation Stakes in style, 50 years and two days after his very first victory. Buster Parnell was the jockey for Weld - then just 24 - as Klairvimy won the King Edward VII Stakes. 

"I've had so many great memories at Royal Ascot; every win there is very special, often for very different reasons," said Weld. "I still enjoy the challenge of it; it's why I'm still doing it. I'm still highly motivated to chase that winning feeling. Perhaps we are a bit more about quality than quantity, but that is what makes it so exciting. The winners' enclosure at Royal Ascot is a special place to be - hopefully, we've got more to come."

Joseph O'Brien

Joseph O'Brien rode the last of his six Royal Ascot winners in 2014 - eight years before he trained his first winner. However, in truth, he had to wait before returning to the winners' enclosure. 

He'd won two Melbourne Cups halfway around the world before he'd tasted big race success just a little closer to home. It was the much-travelled Cox Plate winner State of Rest that got O'Brien the trainer off the mark, winning the Group One Prince of Wales's Stakes in 2022. 

He recalls: “It's just a great place to win; that was a great ride from Shane Crosse on a really tough horse. He won in the USA, France, and Australia, but everyone remembers that Royal Ascot race. As a family, we love the game; we are bred into it, and to have a big Group One winner at Royal Ascot - that is what it is all about."

Willie Mullins

The Master of Closutton has 103 wins at the Cheltenham Festival but scrubs up pretty well in his top hat and tails too.

Last year, Vauban's win in the Copper Horse Handicap was his ninth success at the meeting, but he first got on the scoreboard in 2012 when Simenon banked the Ascot Handicap before winning the Queen Alexandra Stakes just four days later, the longest race of the flat season. 

"You always hope you might get a winner at Royal Ascot, and it's very special when you do," said Mullins. "But that was quite something, getting two at the same meeting." 

Mullins heads to the 2024 meeting on a winning streak, having claimed a victory in the last three renewals, and has plenty of ammunition to fire at the longer flat races.