Auguste Rodin earns O’Brien 400th top-tier victory

Auguste Rodin rewarded those who kept the faith with a determined victory in the Prince of Wales’s Stakes at Royal Ascot – providing trainer Aidan O’Brien with a 400th Group or Grade One triumph on the Flat.

The son of Deep Impact is a brilliant colt on his day, as evidenced by his big-race successes in the Derby, Irish Derby, Irish Champion Stakes and Breeders’ Cup Turf last season.

However, he has also not been the easiest to predict, disappointing as a hot favourite in both the 2000 Guineas and the King George as a three-year-old and on his four-year-old debut in the Dubai Sheema Classic, while he was no match for White Birch on his most recent outing in the Tattersalls Gold Cup.

Despite the doubts, Auguste Rodin was the 6-4 market leader to show his true colours once more and tracked the pacesetting pair of Snobbish and Hans Andersen into the straight, before hitting the front under Ryan Moore.

He was strongly challenged by the French-trained duo of Zarakem and Horizon Dore in the final furlong, but answered Moore’s every call to see off the former by three-quarters of a length.