Forgo the Flying Five in order to watch Snowfall? It can't ever happen again...

What a brilliant weekend of racing that was. Three countries, two days, umpteen great races. It was a wonderful exhibition of everything racing can offer – but also of the sport's remarkable ability to shoot itself in the foot.

The Irish Champion Stakes might have attracted only four runners, but it turns out four is still enough to spark up the old debate surrounding interference rules and enough to produce arguably the race of the season as St Mark's Basilica, Tarnawa and Poetic Flare sprinted up the straight. Fifty minutes later Hurricane Lane produced one of the classiest St Leger performances of my lifetime, winning with the sort of ease that should not be possible at the highest levels of competition.

The action on Sunday was just as fascinating, with five Group 1 races and two further Arc trials. However, anyone wishing to witness Snowfall's shock defeat at 1-5 likely had to forgo what may have turned out to be the race of the day as Romantic Proposal, A Case Of You, Glass Slippers, Dragon Symbol and Rohaan thundered home in the Flying Five.