Names such as Tommy Smith, Colin Hayes and Bart Cummings resonate through racing history and in their day achieved the sort of cut through into mainstream consciousness that few of their contemporary peers could manage.

But has there ever been a trainer anywhere in the world like Aidan O'Brien, the master of Ballydoyle, in County Tipperary, Ireland?

An equine genius, O'Brien has been hailed as the world's pre-eminent trainer for at least the past 10 years as he takes the blue bloods provided to him by the Coolmore breeding empire and turns them into champions.

The quietly spoken, teetotal Irishman has trained winners all over the globe, including the 2014 Cox Plate winner at Moonee Valley with Adelaide.

That has been his notable success in this country, but if things work out in the Caulfield Cup for his galloper Johannes Vermeer, O'Brien will have more reason than most to remember Australia fondly.

If the son of Galileo - named for the 17th-century Dutch painter best known for his iconic work Girl with a Pearl Earring - can salute in the world's richest 2400-metre handicap, O'Brien will set a new global benchmark for group 1 winners in a season.

He has trained 24, one less than the world record set by the late great American horseman Bobby Frankel, after who the great racehorse was named.

If Johannes Vermeer gets up O'Brien will equal the US trainer's total and he could eclipse it later on Saturday night when he has a fleet of runners in several of the group 1 races on the card at Ascot's end-of-season Champions Day in England.

For a man who only turned 48 this week, the father-of-four has set standards that may never be matched.

Last year O'Brien bettered the monumental total of 281 accrued by Smith - who was a much older man when he stopped training - and when you consider he also trains horses who race over jumps (he sent out the triple champion hurdler Istabraq some 20 years ago), his record is even more formidable.

What is it that makes him so good?

Yes, he has quality horses to train. Galileo is the pre-eminent sire in Europe and Coolmore tends to have a lock on his progeny.

It is only in the past few months that their biggest challenger, Godolphin, ended a self-imposed and long-running boycott of the Irish operation and began to buy the stock of Coolmore sires at the main public auctions in the US and Britain. Its boycott coincided with the rise to prominence of Galileo, so it hurt Godolphin more than Coolmore.

But it is more than that. O'Brien is one of the sport's genuine "horse whisperers", a quiet, reflective painstaking man who can see things in a horse, whether it is in their physical wellbeing or mental condition, that others cannot.

He has built a formidable team of staff and has access to the best riders, but loyalty has been the keyword.

While Ryan Moore gets the pick of the Coolmore rides, jockey Seamus (Seamie) Heffernan has been a constant with O'Brien, the pair meeting at Jim Bolger's stables in County Carlow 25 years ago.

Wayne Lordan and Colm O'Donohue have also been regular Coolmore riders, while his sons, Joseph (retired after a short but glittering career in the saddle) and Donnacha (a promising youngster), and daughter Anastasia (recovering after a heavy race fall this year) have also ridden Ballydoyle winners in recent seasons.

Can Johannes Vermeer give O'Brien the record in the Caulfield Cup? The market seems to think so, as he has now, with the injury to Japanese galloper Admire Deus, firmed as favourite.

His terrific first run in Australia in the group 1 Caulfield Stakes last weekend behind Gailo Chop showed he has acclimatised, and unless there is a reaction to such a quick back-up he is one of the leading chances.

O'Brien's travelling foreman T.J. Comerford is not concerned about the prospect of two races in a week for the horse. While such a pattern is not the norm in Europe, O'Brien does not mind racing his horses often when they are fit and in good form.

"He ran very well, we thought as much, he was absolutely flying since he got here, I think since he got here his work has come on again," Comerford told Racing.com.

"He came out of the race so well, it was actually like a piece of work for him. He always seems to come out of his races well, he hasn't been knocked about at all really, he had a lovely race, he came back, ate up at night and that is where we are now."

In his 13-race career Johannes Vermeer has only backed-up once after a seven-day break, but it was one of his best performances when he won the group 1 Criterium International at St Cloud in France as a two-year-old.

The only other short interval he has had between races was a two-week absence this year, and he again put in a top effort when winning a group 3 contest at The Curragh, beating the handy Irish galloper Success Days.