Remember how practically everybody at the time slagged off last year's National Stakes? Well there was a sore temptation to do the same after Beckett won yesterday's Group One race.
The only thing stopping most of us was the memory of all the crow that has had to be eaten over a certain horse called Sinndar but even so the result was curiously unsatisfying.
Not that that has anything to do with Beckett's resolution, which saw the Aidan O'Brien third string run out a three-length winner from his stable companion King's County, with the maiden, March King , in third.
But his stable companion Darwin, the 4 to 9 favourite, returned lame after passing the post in only sixth place and Cashmans reflected the general mood by installing Beckett at 33 to 1 for the 2,000 Guineas.
That sees Darwin still ahead of him in the market at 2 to 1; another stablemate Minardi at 14 to 1, and Hemingway remains the 2,000 Guineas favourite at 10 to 1 despite having missed Saturday's Prix de la Salamandre.
O'Brien gave an upbeat bulletin on Hemingway, who remains his likely runner in the Dewhurst Stakes; and the Salamandre second, Honours List, is likely to run next in Longchamp's Grand Criterum.
The 1 to 4 Juniper only got home by a short head in the opener but will be trained for the Middle Park Stakes at Newmarket's Cambridgeshire festival - a meeting where the Moyglare winner Sequoah may run in the Cheveley Park Stakes.
