Italy's Duccio Bartalucci, who combines the roles of rider and chef d'equipe with amazing equanimity, came to Dublin with one goal, to put an end to a 36-year dearth of Italian wins in the Aga Khan Cup.
He achieved exactly that in emphatic style when a trio of inexperienced rookies joined forces with a seasoned campaigner to trounce the opposition at the RDS yesterday afternoon.
But the victory seemed to come as a shock to Bartalucci, or at least to his wardrobe, when the Italian fashion-victim image sputtered at the sight of an adopted Roman striding up to collect the coveted golden trophy from the Minister for Defence, Michael Smith, clad in jeans.
The 46-year-old, who was born in Pavarotti's home town of Modena, obviously knew that the President was out of town when he got dressed yesterday morning.
But his team at least was groomed to perfection and a 50 per cent strike rate in eight rounds of jumping was the key to getting Italy's first engraving on the Aga Khan Cup since 1962. That was when the legendary d'Inzeo brothers, Graziano Mancinelli and Ugo d'Amelio, did the honours.
The Italian win came as something of a shock to the six other contenders for yesterday's Kerry gold Nations Cup. This was especially so for the home side, who were hotly tipped to finish with their noses in front by both Eddie Macken, from his place on the subs' bench, and chef Tommy Wade.
But their predictions proved sadly misplaced when the defending champions found themselves sharing third place with old rivals Britain behind the marauding Italians and the Dutch.
The Irish bid for a second successive home victory started off on a bad note when pathfinder Peter Charles left the Ballsbridge arena with an 8.25 fault scoreline.
But the British-based Irishman has been nursing a back injury since Wednesday and has been receiving treatment from Irish soccer squad physiotherapist Mick Byrne.
Army rider Capt John Ledingham had nothing cramping his style, however. He rapidly proved his full fitness with a wonderful clear from faithful campaigner Kilbaha.
Ireland's No 3, Aga Khan debutant Erik Holstein, achieved a similar result with Ballaseyr Kalosha, whose heavy breathing was the only noise in an otherwise hushed arena.
A captain's clear from Trevor Coyle would have kept the Irish right on track, but his Lucerne Grand Prix winner Cruising rolled a pole off the fifth to leave the Italians out in front at the break, ahead of Ireland, Holland and Belgium, with the British doing nothing for chef d'equipe Ronnie Massarella's blood pressure down in fifth.
Peter Charles rallied at the second attempt to lower just one with Traxdata Carnavelly.
But both Kilbaha and Kalosha followed suit on four and it was all slipping away from the Irish.
Things had taken a turn for the worse for the Italians as well, however, with first man in, Gianni Govoni, picking up 12 after a stop in the combination.
But 24-year-old Alessia Marioni came to the rescue with a sensational double clear on only her third Nations Cup appearance. Only Britain's Nick Skelton, veteran of well over 100 such outings, could match it.
Trevor Coyle and Cruising came up with all the right answers at the second attempt, but it was too late for the Irish cause.
An injection of adrenalin into the British efforts lifted them up to share the third place to which the home side had dropped.
Two early clears from the Dutch put the pressure on the last man in, Guido Dominici, long-time leader in the Samsung rider rankings. He could afford only one jumping error and nothing on the clock, which had caught out so many in the first round.
Faultless to the very last, Dominici kicked on with Friso to make the time.
Although the front rail plopped on to the Ballsbridge turf, the Italians were home and dry in the best possible build-up to their staging of the World Equestrian Games which had slid, just like the Aga Khan Cup yesterday, out of Ireland's grasp.