A volume of the Old Testament would have served Doncaster punters as well as the form book yesterday as Delilah took advantage of a flood to win the Constant Security Park Hill Stakes.
Rain poured down in such volume for a time, binoculars scoured the horizon for an ark.
But the downpour served to prepare the terrain for the filly taking her name from the Bible's most infamous anti-heroine. At the conclusion of the Group Three, run over the extended mile and six of the St Leger, it was not Richard Quinn's brute force but his brain cells that made the difference.
Sir Michael Stoute's filly had a firm grip of her bridle when coming to challenge Kadaka over a furlong from the finish.
But Quinn was evidently reluctant to commit his partner, for fear she would stop once in front.
So, coaxing her through the final furlong, he kidded the 9 to 1shot to a neck win over Kadaka, with seven lengths back to On Call.
The success gave Highclere Thoroughbred Racing Ltd its second Pattern victory in four days after Tamarisk's demolition of his opponents in the Stanley Leisure Sprint Cup at Haydock on Saturday.
Clerk of the course John Sanderson was adamant the rain had not softened the ground, sticking to his assessment of good, good to firm in places.
Form book judges, whose clocks suggested the ground was dead, disagreed, as did Henry Cecil, trainer of 13 to 8 favourite Tuning, who finished a disappointing seventh of the nine.
The going had been fast for the Cecil filly's win in York's Ebor Handicap and the Warren Place trainer reported to a stewards' inquiry that Tuning, the mount of Kieren Fallon, had been unsuited by the ground, his implication being obvious.
"If I live to be 110, I'll never have a penny on him," was Barry Hills' post-race comment after Cadeaux Cher's victory in the £30,000-added Tote Trifecta Portland Handicap.
The four-year-old, winner of the Great St Wilfrid Handicap at Ripon last month, laid up last for Ray Cochrane early on as Ansellman set the pace in the centre of the course.
But he quickened through to lead inside the last and had enough in reserve to hold Nuclear Debate, bidding to give Lynda Ramsden another valuable winner in her last season with a licence, by a length and a quarter at 20 to 1.
