And it was perhaps appropriate that the horse's equally gifted horseman, Johnny Murtagh, should have evoked the memory of his all-time sporting hero when describing Yeats as 'the Muhammad Ali of Flat racing' after securing their place in history.
Like all great warriors, Yeats showed few signs of battle, or fatigue, after becoming the first horse to win four Gold Cups on the bounce. His ears pricked as he crossed the line, his only concession to the gruelling battle that he had fought was a small drink from his bucket of water before he received the acclaim of the Queen who was beaming with delight.

Some had lost faith in the eight-year-old after he failed to sparkle on his comeback run at Navan. But Murtagh's confidence never faltered.

Nor, too, did the optimism of punters who backed Yeats into
6-4 favouritism for the two-and-a-half mile endurance tests – racing's equivalent of a 15-round fight for boxing's heavyweight championship of the world.

"Muhammad Ali told everyone he was the greatest and he was, and Yeats has shown everyone today that he is the ultimate heavyweight champion," said an overwhelmed Murtagh.

"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. 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."

His trainer, the understated Aidan O'Brien, is used to the pressure of such occasions. The man who masterminded Istabraq's hat-trick of Champion Hurdle triumphs, he never dreamt that his world-famous Ballydoyle stables would be home to another 'people's horse'.

"Unbelievable – that's all I can say. I was so sick all morning because I really believed this couldn't happen," said a relieved O'Brien. "History is really hard to change. Usually fairytales don'tcome true. The only time I've felt this type of pressure was with Istrabraq."

With typical modesty, O'Brien was quick to praise the achievements of others associated with his horse, particularly the stable lads and gallops riders.

But this deflected attention away from his own role in keeping in training a horse who, in normal circumstances, would have been retired to stud long ago to maximise his earning potential as a thoroughbred.

Without O'Brien's astuteness, and tender care timing the preparation for Ascot to perfection year after year, Yeats would not have earned such superlatives yesterday.

Nor should the role of Murtagh be underplayed. His admiration for the horse is infectious, though he only took up the reins last year after two of his predecessors at Ballydoyle, Kieren Fallon and Mick Kinane, rode the super-horse to victory in his first two Gold Cups.

Always prominent in a race run at an uncharacteristically slow pace in its early stages, Murtagh was one of the first of the principals at work before the turn for home, but his mount was more than willing to respond and took a decisive lead on the turn for home.

At that stage, his main market rivals Patkai and Geordieland were travelling strongly and began to make ground. Neither, however, could land a knockout blow.

Patkai – Sir Michael Stoute's young pretender – could only get within three and a half lengths of the brilliant champion, while Geordieland, runner-up for the last two years and trained by Yorkshireman Jamie Osborne, had to make do with third, 15 lengths further adrift.

In winning Ascot's oldest race for a fourth consecutive year, Yeats also arrested another significant statistic. No horse in this age bracket has won the Gold Cup in over a century.

In this kind of form, few would dare back against a famous five in 12 months' time.

But, equally, the winning connections had indicated that yesterday's race could be Yeats' farewell appearance on the racetrack before a deserved, and overdue, retirement.

If this does prove to be the case, Yeats will have achieved what the aforementioned Ali and host of other sporting icons failed to do over the years – and that is retire at the top, and before they become a shadow of their former greatness.