Long live the Leger and all its difficult questions

It might be expected that John Gosden would defend the St Leger, given that he has won the great race four times and has a good chance of making it five on Saturday, but it is never unexpected when someone feels the need to defend it.

After all, we are used to the St Leger coming under fire, but it's usually that sort of fire common to Hollywood blockbusters, where the bad guys bust off rounds by the hundred yet the handsome hero remains miraculously unscathed.

Everyone has a crack at the St Leger, it's almost like a rite of passage, everyone bemoans the fact that there are no 140-rated three-year-olds in the race again this year, mulls over the possibility of reducing its marathon distance so as to endow it with fashionable anonymity, or the potential for allowing older horses to run so that its name can be changed to the Doncaster Cup (Division 2). The fusillade of bullets ceases, albeit temporarily, and the beleaguered hero scrambles to find fresh cover before the shooting starts again. You know he'll make it through to the end credits.