ON the face of it, a scenario which sees the winner of a classic disqualified and then reinstated on appeal is likely to take the gloss off a moment of racing brilliance, but there was something about the drama of the St Leger aftermath which made the whole race more compelling.

The fact that runner-up Bondi Beach was arguably unlucky not to have won the Great Voltigeur in the stewards’ room added ballast to his cause, and the televised inquiry merely added to the sense of occasion, with Colm O’Donoghue as convincing on the stand as Gregory Peck in To Kill A Mockingbird.