ITV wrong-footed by weather but sun broke through for Prescott and Persad

TV coverage of horseracing works best when you have presenters who really throw themselves fearlessly into the prediction game, despite knowing as well as the rest of us how quickly the fates can bowl you over. "At the moment, I'm going to say conditions are getting a bit quicker than people expected," was the early word from Rishi Persad, ITV's man at Longchamp for Arc day. "It's going to remain dry up until the Arc . . . conditions are set fair."

About two hours later, Persad gamely grabbed a pre-race interview with Sir Mark Prescott after, to all appearances, having been for a quick swim in the Seine. The couple of millimetres foreseen by weathermen had turned out to be a proper deluge, cunningly timed to catch all those gathered in and around the paddock for Europe's biggest Flat race.

The TV veteran's hair and clothes were plastered to him and doubtless many others would have made an excuse to seek shelter but he continued to get the interviews that mattered. When you watch the Arc from Blighty, there's generally a sense of missing out on the biggest ballyhoo ever, but this time viewers could start to feel we might be in the right place as we flicked the kettle back on and reached for the jammy dodgers.