To those of us who find their racecourses repetitive and their dirt surfaces barely less offensive than their drug use, American racing offers little fascination. There is, though, something enduringly tantalising about the US Triple Crown - the more so now that its latest, ardent suitor has followed so many others in failing the critical third test.

Late on Saturday night, those not sated by Epsom watched Big Brown, the new American wonderhorse, sent off at prohibitive odds to win the Belmont Stakes and become the first since Affirmed, in 1978, to land the mystical prize.

More than 120,000 packed the New York track. They, and a huge television audience, were dumbfounded as Big Brown dropped out tamely and was virtually pulled up behind the 38-1 winner, Da'Tara.

Had he won, it would have caused a stir even in Britain - albeit nothing to rival the stir created by New Approach. Perhaps, though, the link is more genuine than might be imagined.

Luca Cumani is the latest trainer to attest there will never be another winner of Britain's Triple Crown of classics. Yet New Approach is that rarest of beasts who just might have had the talents and constitution to prove him wrong. Imagine the nose verdict in the Guineas had gone his way. With stamina to burn, he would now be odds-on for the St Leger, if his trainer could bear to embrace such an unfashionable race.