The lesson of 40-1 winner Anmaat is that a horse can always be forgiven for a single bad performance

I'm struggling to remember when I last saw a big-race winner on the Flat overcome the sudden, late loss of his position that Anmaat endured with two furlongs to run in Saturday's Champion Stakes. Carrying the familiar blue and white of Shadwell, he had caught the eye moving with ease behind the leaders but had nowhere to go as the race developed all around him and got shuffled back to ninth. It would have been a nightmare for a fancied runner. For a 40-1 shot, it was clearly the end of whatever chance he might have held.

And yet, seconds later Anmaat came rocketing through the pack, to the audible astonishment of the crowd, whose cheers for Calandagan died in their throats. The French-trained favourite had also met trouble, but didn't suffer quite so grievously as the eventual winner and got first run on him before being swept aside.

Every punter feels hard done by when they've backed a runner-up who hit traffic trouble, but Calandagan did not look unlucky. Drawn in stall one, he'd benefited from a ground-saving route around the inner; having to wait a moment for the gap to appear is the price that often has to be paid in those circumstances.