By Cornelius Lysaght BBC Sport racing correspondent

Royal Ascot 2003 will go down as one of the best, most riveting and perhaps most significant of the modern era.

From the brilliant, wide-margin Coventry Stakes success of Three Valleys on the first day, the quality just kept on coming over the subsequent afternoons.

It is hard to know where to start.

Dubai Destination (Queen Anne Stakes), Nayef (Prince of Wales'), Mr Dinos (Gold Cup), Russian Rhythm (Coronation) and High Accolade (King Edward VII) all supplied notable highlights.

And then there are the multiple training exploits of Mark Johnston and Mick Channon, and the thrilling dead heat in the Wokingham Handicap.

Choisir (right) won the Wokingham Stakes

However, it has to be the history-making victory of Australia's Choisir in the King's Stand Stakes on Tuesday, followed by a sensational repeat performance in the Golden Jubilee Stakes four days later, that stands out most of all.

Both times the four-year-old blasted away the best that Europe could muster, including, in front of huge crowds, Airwave, the hot favourite for the Golden Jubilee.

Little wonder the suggestion by his jockey Johnny Murtagh that Choisir should now stay around to see what other plums can be gathered, is likely to become a plan.

The scale of what has been achieved cannot be over-estimated.

Not only did trainer Paul Perry and his team manage to bring their sprinter - notoriously hard horses to keep cool, calm and collected - over 10,000 miles from New South Wales without serious mishap.

But they have opened a whole new era in the history of the Queen's racecourse.

We all know that Royal Ascot is one of the great sporting events of Britain, but Ascot officials have long been determined to make their fixture a major focus for global racing, especially when the �180m re-development is completed.

Consequently, with royal approval, they have been trawling the world seeking international contenders, and their efforts have been rewarded with representatives appearing from Hong Kong, South Africa and the United States, as well as Australia.

Choisir provided a thick layer of icing on a very palatable cake.

Perry has confirmed that he will, if possible, be back with more than just Choisir in future, and others will doubtless choose to follow.