It takes something special to take the spotlight away from a classic and there was enough merit in Crimplene's Entenmann's Irish 1,000 Guineas victory yesterday to demand something extra special. Montjeu provided it.
The records will show the double-Derby and Arc de Triomphe winner started his four-year-old career with a length and a half defeat of Greek Dance in the Tattersalls Gold Cup. That's the bare story, but the embellishment was simply awesome.
Rarely if ever can there have been a Group One at the Curragh that's been won with more contemptuous ease.
Maybe Shergar in the 1981 Derby won as easy, and there was an Irish Oaks winner in 1986 called Colorspin that won with Pat Eddery admiring the scenery all the way up the straight, but unlike them, Montjeu had to overcome more than a moment of adversity.
In a small field, that nevertheless contained two other Group One winners, Montjeu found himself with nowhere to go from the two-furlong pole to the one pole. Michael Kinane determined to wait and it was inside the distance before a gap appeared between Greek and Dance and Mutafaweq.
Montjeu didn't so much quicken through it as saunter, with Kinane motionless as he prepared his post-race eulogy.
"Best I've ridden" competed with "awesome power" and "fabulous horse" among the most popular of Kinane's descriptions, and Cashmans took the hint to make Montjeu the 2 to 1 favourite for the King George.
Before that will be the Grand Prix de St Cloud, which is run on Irish Derby day, so Kinane may have to temporarily give up the mount. Montjeu's trainer John Hammond described the stewards' inquiry announcement as "the biggest odds on shot of the day", but the subsequent "no alteration" was surely bigger.
Hammond added: "I think he is equally effective over 10 furlongs and if anything he has got quicker. It's very exciting to see him win like that and if he'd been beat it wouldn't have been Mick's fault. Occasionally that can happen."
People can occasionally lose their temper too but Clive Brittain was cursing the irate Capanelle starter, who he believes has cost Crimplene a 1,000 Guineas treble.
"The filly that entered the stalls before ours in the Italian Guineas gave the starter hassle and he took it out on Crimplene. She got very upset, came out in a sweat, and could only finish third," said Brittain. "So then I knew she'd win the German Guineas and then we decided to come here."
It paid off as the 16 to 1 shot made virtually all under Philip Robinson, who also won the race in 1984 on Katies, to beat off Amethyst and Storm Dream. The big Irish hope, Preseli, finished second last and the Godolphin-trained favourite, Meiosis, was found to be slightly lame in her off-fore after managing only fifth last.
Ireland was the fifth country this year that Crimplene has raced in and Brittain joked: "We'll give her a rest now - and bring her back for a race next week!"
