It looked as though Brass Hat and Wilko would battle it out at the two-furlong point but Electrocutionist was hitting top gear and began to power down the middle of the track.
Fast-improving Magna Graduate trained by shrewdie Todd Pletcher, a four-year-old who flopped in the slop last time behind Brass Hat will have his followers.
Then, in October 1941, "some brass hat moved a little flag on a huge table-map" and he was on a troop ship to Singapore ( arriving just in time to see the RAF leaving, as the Japanese invaded.
Wilko and Magna Graduate took third and fourth behind Brass Hat, but were promoted to second and third respectively after the American runner was disqualified following a stewards' enquiry.