ANYONE watching the Kentucky Derby from Churchill Downs on Saturday was treated to drama in the race and even higher drama in the aftermath, as first-past-the-post Maximum Security was disqualified for hanging out on the final bend (though none of the 100 or so pundits on the local channel seemed fully aware of this possibility to begin with: such is modern television).

It was also a rather weird race in terms of time, which is possibly best conveyed by the fact that the overall time of 2m 03.93s was the fourth-slowest of 20 this century but that front-running Maximum Security’s opening quarter was faster than any other winner in that time (22.31s) and that his final two furlongs was also quicker than average (25.28s), with everything in between notably slow.