The rain came in time for Montjeu to run in the Budweiser Irish Derby and as the battered and sore opposition found out, only a flood of biblical proportions could have saved them.
Montjeu was a decisive five-length winner despite repeating his hanging tendencies in the closing stages and is now as low as 5 to 2 favourite with Ladbrokes for the Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe.
Anyone aiming a horse at the Arc and looking for consolation from Montjeu's hanging instincts are likely, however, to be disappointed.
"He's looking for competition," said Cash Asmussen. "If I run up and engage another horse with him, it will not be a problem," he said, also kicking into touch any suggestion that Montjeu was a one dimensional mudlark.
"That was good racing ground, by no means soft, and no jockey will say he has been beaten by the ground. That's great because now we know we don't have to carry his racetrack around in a sack," he added.
Asmussen and John Hammond combined for the 1991 Arc winner Suave Dancer and the Chantilly based trainer was typically succinct in his comparison of the two horses.
"Well this fellow has won the Irish Derby and the other one didn't! We've always thought Montjeu will improve with time and with a bit of luck he may stay in training at four," said Hammond.
Daliapour's trainer Luca Cumani said afterwards that he will train his colt for the Arc but there looked to be no excuses for any horse yesterday.
Urban Ocean set the pace until the approach to the turn in when Daliapour and the market weakener Beat All ranged up. Asmussen had moved Montjeu through the pack at that stage and when he ranged up on the outside, the French horse looked in a different league.
"It's a shame Daliapour has been second again but he has put up a very professional performance and has improved since Epsom," said Cumani. "He showed true grit out there and I was getting excited until I saw Montjeu." Tchaikovsky emerged as the best of the four-strong Aidan O'Brien team in third, Michael Kinane reporting: "He knows more now than he did in France and ran a blinder. The better ground helped him too."
Beat All finished a well beaten fourth and his American rider Gary Stevens, having his first Irish Derby ride, admitted to being "disappointed and confused."
"He never gave up but he never gave me a feeling of confidence," Stevens said. "I was chasing him along after five furlongs but I'm not going to blame anything like the ground."
The other overseas runner Mutafaweq finished fifth and Frankie Dettori said the race may have come a little soon after Royal Ascot. "He's run a good race and has been beaten by a very good horse. He will have a break now," added trainer Saeed Bin Suroor.
Aidan O'Brien was pleased with Tcahaikovsky's Derby effort but was left thinking of next year's 2,000 Guineas after Bernstein kept his unbeaten record with a smooth success in the Railway Stakes. Ladbrokes now go 12 to 1 joint favourites on Bernstein and Fasliyev for the Guineas but the English Tote put Bernstein as low as 7 to 1 favourite for the 2,000 Newmarket classic.
"He has loads of speed but he settles and I imagine he will stay a mile," conceded O'Brien. "The sky is the limit for him and his temperament is fine. He is just very big and athletic and is not afraid of much. We'll probably come back for the Anglesey Stakes on Oaks day."
O'Brien also won the Scurry Handicap with Oyster Catcher but the other Group race on the card, the International Stakes, went to Henry Cecil's Great Dane who made all the running to beat Altibr by two lengths.
Another man on the double was Pat Shanahan who landed the Guinness Handicap on the apparent Dermot Weld second string Free To Speak and followed that up in the last by giving Try For Ever a cool ride to finish fast and late ahead of Sarayan.
