Frank McNally watched Paddy Teahon over the jumps, with the finishing post nowhere in sight.
Racing fans will recall the chaos caused in last year's Grand National when Paddy's Return, his rider already unseated, refused a fence and brought down eight horses.
So it was a slightly nervous field which lined out at the Public Accounts Commitee yesterday as Paddy Teahon reappeared for the latest running of the grand national stadium controversy.
And sure enough, the main protagonist - hanging on to his seat for dear life - refused early on, when asked if he had anything to say about the Attorney General's draft report on the aquatic centre row.
In a happier coincidence Red Marauder, as Labour's Pat Rabbitte is sometimes known, again escaped from the confusion with a lead, albeit bearing in mind that the finishing post in this race may still a long way off yet.
Conor Lenihan could be in trouble with the stewards, however. Insisting for the second day running that there was no case to answer, he may not have been flogging a dead horse. But it looked a rather tired one yesterday.
Inevitably, in a racing metaphor J.P. McManus had to feature. So in one of the few clear-cut exchanges of the day, Mr Rabbitte asked where the legendary gambler's £50 million offer to the State was, and Mr Teahon said it had been deposited "in a Swiss bank".
There was palpable relief that, in all the confusion, here at least was a straightforward procedure. But the Red Marauder was still worried. Was there not a deadline? There was, Mr Teahon confirmed, but not until 2008.
Relief was rare yesterday, when much of the testimony was a case of Paddy's Lament. His beloved project under fire from all quarters, Mr Teahon repeatedly stressed the superiority of the Irish proposals to facilities abroad: including the aquatic centres of Manchester and Helsinki, where the "leisure waters" don't measure up to ours. And with Paddy's Green Shamrock Shore such an uncomfortable place at the moment, no wonder he seeks solace in foreign watering holes.
Speaking of which, the Waterworld UK saga took another twist yesterday when committee chairman Michael Finucane announced that the shelf company was now on sale for £50, and that the prospectus didn't mention H²O of any kind, leisure or otherwise.
There is water, water everywhere in this affair, apparently, but ne'er a drop of it in the description of the company that bid for the aquatic centre contract. No wonder Bernard Durkan complained that he was "a little bit at sea". Maybe the committee should appoint a lifeguard.