IT is a wonderful irony that the most unsatisfactory result in sport, a dead-heat, proved the most satisfactory outcome of the great duel that lit up the relatively mundane last few weeks of a Flat season.

In many sports a draw is followed by play-offs, extra time, penalties, even a toss of the coin, but any such action would have brutally devalued the herculean efforts put in by two men whose desire to be the best warranted a result that means both can stake legitimate claims to that superlative.

Jamie Spencer and Seb Sanders are the champion jockeys. It rings well.

There is a school of thought in the racing business which says that putting the cham- pionship chasers through the torture of the closing months of the title race is wrong. The manic travelling up and down the British mainland, the constant weight watching, the 10-hour shifts, are not compatible with modern sport.

Maybe not, but they do demand a hunger to be the best that has burned in the sporting breast since Charlton Heston got up close home in the chariot race.

To change the rules so that prize money would be the criteria to determine the champion jockey, as it is for the trainers and owners of the year, would create a platform for the jockeys from the biggest stables to win much, or maybe, all of the time.

Spencer, who was winning his second title, has already said that he will not be putting his body and mind through this torture again and he is surely now entitled to a relatively less debilitating jockey's existence.

Many others who have yet to make it to the podium will be queuing up to win the only prize in racing that does not bring with it cash rewards.

Glory is the carrot and the titles of champion and ex-champion will be with the winner for the rest of his life. That is why, even although the modern title-race is so much more exhausting because of the extra turf meetings that exist today, as well as the advent of all-weather tracks, the cham-pionship must remain as it is, a test of dedication, determination and endurance. The skill bit we take for granted.

It is also the case that, at a time when the game is being riddled with corruption allegations, the demonstration of sportsmanship by both contenders was exemplary.

Perhaps the best example came from Spencer in the second race after the most astonishing incident of a memorable day.

Seb, riding Incomparable, was settling for second place, when the clear leader, Godolphin-owned Omnicat, ducked right and then violently left to unseat Eddie Ahern less than 100 yards from the winning post. Omnicat then nearly bumped into Sanders' mount but Incomparable squeezed past the post in front.

Sander had already emerged from the penultimate day's duelling at Musselburgh and Wolverhampton with a single-win lead. Now, he was two in front.

If Spencer ever had any reason to berate the gods for finishing him off in brutal fashion this was it. He took a totally different view, however, after dismounting from his horse, Horatio Carter, who had finished sixth. "I've had a lot of luck, too, this season," he said. "Seb was due a bit but it is a pity he picked the wrong day. Hand on my heart, if he wins it, he deserves it more than any other jockey that has been champion, because he has put more effort in. "

Sanders did look just about home and dry but this see-saw of a battle was never going to reach a straightforward finish, although Jamie would have been forgiven for hauling out the white flag when he was beaten in a photo-finish in the next race. Half-an-hour later, he was back in the running, winning on Generous Thought.

However, when Sanders strode clear on Borderlescott inside the final furlong in the third-last race, the end was in sight. Not for long, as Galeota flew the last 200 yards and forced a photo-finish with Seb's mount.

Sanders went down by a short head and Jamie was still alive, if clinging to the raft.

Neither made any progress in the second-last race, but in the final event of the Flat season, 2007, Spencer brought it to a perfect conclusion when storming home on Inchnadamph.

It was 190-190, the first draw since 1923. The combatants shook hands,hoisted the trophy aloft, posed for pictures, each as pleased for the other as for himself.

It was a good day to be a racing man.