AIDAN O’BRIEN hailed the amazing Yeats as he wrote himself into racing history by becoming the first horse to win the Ascot Gold Cup four times.

Compared by his jockey Johnny Murtagh to Muhammed Ali, Yeats powered his way to victory at Royal Ascot and can be regarded as the greatest Flat stayer of all time.

In the 202-year history of the 2m4f race only two horses had won three times – Yeats and Sagaro in the 1970s – but the now the eight-year-old stands along with a fourth win on an emotion-charged afternoon at Royal Ascot.

As only two horses aged eight or over had ever won the race – the last in 1900 – coupled with a lacklustre reappearance at Naas in heavy conditions, doubts abounded. But the son of Sadler’s Wells comes alive at Ascot and he went off the 6-4 favourite.

With a positive ride from Murtagh, Yeats tracked the leaders and then powered away from his rivals three furlongs from home. Patkai made a late charge to catch him but nothing could deny him his day of destiny as he crossed the line three and a half lengths ahead.

O’Brien had seen Champion Hurdle triple hero Istabraq pull up on his attempt at a fourth success at Cheltenham in 2002. But the Ballydoyle trainer wasn’t disappointed this time. He said: “Unbelievable – that’s all I can say. He is an amazing horse.

“I was so sick this morning as I believed this couldn’t happen. I really felt sick to the stomach.

“History is very hard to change, we knew we had a wonderful horse but usually fairytales don’t come true. You dream and dream and dream, we were in this position and we never would be again – great things can happen.

“This is something that has never been done before and I didn’t think it could be done.

“Johnny had a lot of pressure on his shoulders and the way he handled it, the way he rode was something else. He’s an unbeliev-able horse. We knew there would never be another one of him.”

O’Brien added: “I felt pressure with Istabraq and got over it, and I thought it would never happen again. I was afraid of the disappointment for everyone if it didn’t happen today. I can’t tell you how privileged I feel but it is the people involved everyday that have made it happen – I was just watching from the distance.”

Yeats is 5-1 with Skybet and William Hill to win a fifth Gold Cup, but O’Brien said: “I don’t think he will try and make it five, but it is not my decision.

“He has an amazing heart and lung capacity – I don’t know what would happen if anything ever happened to him. He is not gelded so we can tap into those genes, and I’d be afraid to race him again after today.”

Murtagh, who leads the top jockey charts with four winners but is banned today and tomorrow, landed his fifth Gold Cup. But he marvelled at Yeats’s ability and said: “Muhammad Ali told everyone he was the greatest and he was, and Yeats has shown everyone he is the ultimate heavyweight champion.

“I had no doubts. After Navan I looked at Aidan and he told me ‘he’ll be grand for Ascot’.

“We kept saying the ground was too soft at Navan but nobody believed us and people tried to pick holes in him.

“He loves fast ground, he loves Royal Ascot and he comes alive here. This is one the greatest days of my riding career and the feeling I had coming past the line for the horse alone was incredible.

“I’ve had a good week but for the horse to win four Ascot Gold Cups is fantastic. It’s good for racing, and Yeats is everything that’s positive about racing.”

Meanwhile Warrington jockey Paul Hanagan landed his first ever winner at Royal Ascot when he partnered the Richard Fahey-trained Cosmic Sun to a shock 66-1 success in the final race, the King George V Handicap.

The 27-year-old jockey gave the Helissio gelding a superb ride and he battled in game fashion to hold Chiberta King by just over a length. Hanagan felt confident he would break his Royal Ascot duck when he spoke to the Daily Post earlier this week. And he said: “We had our hopes up in the Queen Mary yesterday but Rose Blossom was disappointing and this shows how up and down the game can be. When he ran at Musselburgh last time, he ran out on the bend and didn’t handle the track but he didn’t put a foot wrong here.”