Aidan O'Brien-trained Dylan Thomas's loss was Vermilion's gain as the local favourite comfortably won the Japan Cup today.
There was no luck for the two British raiders as Gerard Butler's Jack Sullivan and Clive Britain's Kandidate had no answer to the five-year-old, trained by Sei Ishizaka and ridden by superstar Yutake Take.
After an impressive fourth in the Dubai Cup in March, Vermilion won on home dirt by one and a quarter lengths beating Field Rouge. Sunrise Bacchus was three and a half lengths back in third.
Jack Sullivan finished 12th with Eddie Ahern aboard and Ryan Moore rode Kandidate to 15th of the 16 runners.
The Japan Cup was due to have been Dylan Thomas's final race before retiring to stud.
But the star of Ballydoyle was barred from the €3.3-million race after a non-negative test result for EVA meant he was confined to the Shiroi quarantine centre earlier this week by Japanese racing authorities.
However O'Brien hopes to run the horse in next month Hong Kong for the international series at Sha Tin.