'I've trained for Ms Rausing for 35 years and I trained Alpinista's grandmother and the mother, and Luke has been with me 11 years,' mused racing's most revered storyteller. This career-defining moment was a lifetime in the making and you suspect his only regret might be not being able to put one over on the handicapper in the process. Prescott has a well-documented penchant for executing long-range plots, but even the Heath House maestro outdid himself here. She put the race to bed in a matter of strides with an irresistible surge and, while Vadeni and last year's hero Torquator Tasso kept going gallantly to be second and third, they could not lay a glove on the winner. Under a measured steer by Morris, who found a berth on the rail behind the leaders before letting his mount slide into the lead between the fading Titleholder and Broome two furlongs out, Alpinista showed herself to be serenely superior. Having run up a sequence of five Group 1s thanks to some choice race-planning by Prescott, the fear was that Kirsten Rausing's homebred might have already reached the ceiling of her ability. Nonetheless, in defying gruelling conditions with scarcely credible ease as her illustrious rivals floundered, the classy grey posted a signature performance to justify sustained market support that saw her return a strong 7-2 market leader. It remains to be seen if this fabulous mare's decisive half-length triumph in European Flat racing's €5 million Holy Grail amounts to the best being saved for last as there are major international targets still to consider.

Sir Mark Prescott has spent more than half a century honing a reputation for keeping a little bit up his sleeve and the 101st Qatar Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe may prove his piece de resistance as Alpinista sluiced through the sodden Longchamp turf to record an emphatic victory under Luke Morris. Sunday: Qatar Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe, Longchamp

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