By Cornelius Lysaght BBC racing correspondent

Top horse: Plenty of contenders, but the award ends up as a photo-finish between Manduro, classy winner of the Prince of Wales's Stakes (Wednesday) and Silkwood, successful in Thursday's Ribblesdale Stakes.

Stephane Pasquier rode Manduro to a well-deserved victory

Manduro's legendary trainer Andre Fabre - not renowned for his liberal use of hyperbole - spouted forth enthusiastically about Manduro, who will probably return to Ascot for next month's King George V1 and Queen Elizabeth Stakes.

Silkwood missed the Oaks, and was perhaps fresher than some of her rivals (which had raced at Epsom), but even so she really did trot up.

Top jockey: Jimmy Fortune received deserved recognition on the Royal Ascot stage for a terrific five winners, including a treble on day two. Of the quintet, a particular mention should go to Nannina, very impressive in taking the Windsor Forest Stakes.

Top trainer: Aidan O'Brien. The County Tipperary maestro enjoyed a quite magnificent four winners, five seconds and three thirds. A special mention should go to the increasingly upwardly mobile Jamie Osborne (two winners plus a good second, with Geordieland behind O'Brien's Yeats in the Gold Cup).

One to watch (jockey): Eighteen-year-old apprentice William Buick, who handled Wokingham Handicap winner Dark Missile with considerable aplomb. Praise indeed for Buick came from former champion jockey Jamie Spencer, who told me: "If he does something wrong you only have to tell him once, and sometimes I wish I was that stylish."

One to watch (trainer): Ireland's Ger Lyons, who has made successful raids on the big meetings at Chester, Epsom and now Royal Ascot, winning the Queen Mary Stakes with Elletelle.

Biggest romantics: 1. Trainer Jeremy Noseda on the success of problem-plagued Soldier's Tale in the Golden Jubilee Stakes: "I love him from the bottom of my heart."

2. Trainer Sir Michael Stoute on back-to-back Hardwicke Stakes winner Maraahel: "You have to love him, everyone does."

Useless fact number 5,009,456: All-the-way King Edward VII Stakes winner Boscobel shares his name with the place in Shropshire where King Charles II hid (in an oak tree) from Oliver Cromwell's troops after being defeated at the Battle of Worcester in 1651.

Aussie jockey Newitt showed that he has a way with words

Quote of the week: Aussie jockey Craig Newitt on the strengths of his King's Stand Stakes winner, Miss Andretti: "Mate, she is tough; she goes out drinking and smoking with the boys."

The mare demonstrated why Tasmania-born Newitt has such faith in her, blitzing her rivals in a remarkable 57.44 seconds in the five furlong (1000m) sprint.

Heartbreak hotel moment: Redoubtable Australian runner Takeover Target saw off (nearly) all-comers in the Golden Jubilee Stakes only to be collared by Soldier's Tale literally on the finishing line. Takeover Target had been 4th in the King's Stand Stakes.

The highpoint: The Australians.

The lowpoint: The Queen was not the only one reigning on Friday and Saturday.

Jumping to it: Ex-professional jump jockeys Jamie Osborne, Andre Fabre, Ger Lyons, David Elsworth, Bryan Smart (once no. 1 rider to Jenny Pitman) and John Quinn all trained winners at Royal Ascot, Flat racing's greatest festival.

None of their former Flat counterparts made it onto the score-sheet.

Surprise, surprise: To the obvious fury of some of his former colleagues, the Jockey Club's discredited ex-security chief Major General Jeremy Phipps made it into the Royal Procession twice.

Phipps left under a cloud after being made to look a complete clown by undercover TV reporters. Clown was not the word being employed by said former colleagues.

Pat on the back: The �10m of improvements made by the course to its controversial re-development were generally well-received. However, with attendances well down on all but one afternoon of the five-day meeting (I don't think we are ever going to get used to the Aussies' use of the word 'carnival'), there is clearly work to be done.