Only a short head, and a potential exceptional champion in Bow Echo, separated Aidan O’Brien from a near-perfect Royal Ascot opener on Tuesday. Mission Central completed the Irishman’s set of Royal Ascot Group One prizes in the King Charles III Stakes, before which O’Brien’s second-string Great Barrier Reef delivered him a 12th Coventry Stakes success.The double took the record-breaking trainer to within two of a remarkable “century” of Royal Ascot successes ahead of the only other race he contested on Tuesday, the featured St James’s Palace Stakes, which lived up to its billing with a thrilling finish. Bow Echo beat O’Brien-trained Gstaad with authority in last month’s Newmarket 2000 Guineas, but the 5/6 favourite needed grit as well as brilliance this time to confirm the placings by a tiny margin.Bumping after the start did Bow Echo no favours and left his jockey, Billy Loughnane, in a particularly unenviable position.Opting to go wide of the field into the straight, the 20-year-old rider was probably the least surprised of all that Ryan Moore, on board Gstaad, went up the inside of pacesetting stable companion Puerto Rico on the turn in. Loughnane waited before finally committing his horse’s turn of foot, but then had to endure an agonising final furlong as Gstaad and Moore remorselessly closed to the line. Another stride could have produced a different outcome, but Bow Echo’s head was down at the right time.Loughnane wasn’t impressed with his own efforts, said his colt had overcome a “horrible passage” and basically got his rider out of trouble. Billy Loughnane celebrates after riding Bow Echo to victory. Photograph: Alan Crowhurst/Getty For a colt that earned comparisons with Frankel after his Newmarket triumph, there were echoes of how the former great champion came closest to defeat in his own unbeaten career in the 2011 St James’s Palace, ironically with Moore closing then too on Zoffany.Now Bow Echo and Gstaad could clash for a third time this season in Goodwood’s Sussex Stakes. Bow Echo’s trainer, George Boughey, said: “He’s a very tough horse to do what he’s done as today didn’t go according to plan. To show that fight late on is what he’s all about. He’s shown a turn of foot to get to the front, and Billy had to move earlier than he wanted to.” O’Brien acknowledged Gstaad could be a horse for 10-furlongs in time, but showed no readiness to baulk for another go at Bow Echo in the Sussex.“It was a little bit rough early, and Ryan was a bit further back than he wanted to be. As you saw, going to the line he was closing and closing,” he said. “You wouldn’t be afraid of going back over a mile with him again.”Moore, though, got a three-day suspension for careless riding in relation to the incident shortly after the start. The meeting opened with a 50/1 shock in the Queen Anne for Ten Bob Tony and for once O’Brien proved to be on the layers’ side too in the big sprint formerly known as the Kings Stand.Mission Central, a gelded sprinter bred by the Ryanair boss Michael O’Leary, completed his trainer’s collection of top-flight Ascot prizes by pouncing late on the French filly Rayevka to score at 14/1. It opened a possible tilt at Australia’s lucrative “Everest” contest in October worth 20 million Australian dollars (€12 million).The victory also completed Moore’s Group One collection at the meeting and proved quick consolation for having got it wrong in the Coventry when opting for Confucius rather than Great Barrier Reef. Once again, Wayne Lordan made the most of his opportunity and got Great Barrier Reef from a seemingly challenging low draw. Joseph O’Brien dominated the Ascot Stakes as Kizlyar beat stable companion Defiantly in a close finish to give jockey Joey Sheridan a first Royal Ascot success. Sheridan said: “It just means everything. I only started riding for Joseph last year and it’s what kept me in Ireland really and I can’t thank him enough for what he’s given me. Dylan [Browne McMonagle] was out for the first two months of the season and Joseph fired everything at me, so to pay him back to ride a Royal Ascot winner is brilliant.”The winner was another big success for the HOS Syndicate that memorably landed Breeders’ Cup glory with Ethical Diamond last November.