It highlighted a rule that really should be changed in the interest of integrity and punter protection.

To surmise, the trainer’s representative forgot to put the weight cloth on when tacking up Shield, so after the five-year-old went on to win the novice hurdle, it inevitably emerged that he had weighed in much too light and had to be disqualified. It was a costly mistake for the connections of the first past the post, but the brunt of the financial pain was incurred by those who had bet on the race.