Good news for punters and for racing too

Every yard counts. Ask those who backed 8-11 favourite El Gran Senor for the Derby in 1984 only to see the 2,000 Guineas winner overhauled by Secreto in the last few strides.

If you asked those same punters for their reaction when they discovered a few years later that the race had actually been run over further than everyone thought you may well have got some choice responses.

The world's most famous race over a mile and a half had actually been a contest over a mile and a half and ten yards – and that extra ten yards would definitely have rankled if you had backed the 2,000 Guineas winner.