Which came first - the scarcity of top-class stayers or the steady decline in opportunities for them?

Something struck me when I went racing at Kempton last week; only once did the runners complete more than a single lap of the track.

That came in a 1m3f handicap, the fifth event on a seven-race card. All the other races were run over no more than a mile.

I then read colleague Lewis Porteous’s column in the Racing Post this week bemoaning the lack of British-trained entries in the Melbourne Cup, a situation caused largely by the fact there simply aren’t enough staying horses of suitable quality in the country. Based on my trip to Kempton I wondered whether this was a case of the chicken or the egg.