IT’S A crap shoot. Nothing more, nothing less. Ship your horse thousands of miles, take a deep breath and roll the dice. You never know: you might beat three, as did Nebraska Tornado on Saturday; just one, as did Mona Lisa; or none at all, the fate of Scandinavia. Or you could end up beating them all. Just like Wilko.

The Breeders’ Cup makes a habit of implausible storylines. Wilko was the latest European winner on his dirt debut to rank alongside Arcangues, Arazi, Johannesburg and Sheikh Albadou. And there have been near-misses: Dayjur, Eltish, Giant’s Causeway, Ibn Bey and Sakhee all ran second. Yet still the mantra persists. Europeans should stick to grass. Dirt is for rodeos.

The most endearing post-race analysis at this Breeders’ Cup was given by Jeremy Noseda, the Newmarket trainer, who amplified why Wilko’s chance wasn’t as forlorn as implied by odds of 28-1. Wilko is by Awesome Again, who is also the sire of Ghostzapper, dazzling winner of the Classic, on dirt, that same afternoon.

As the Americans say, Awesome Again is “all dirt”. He ran on the stuff, his progeny thrive on it. Furthermore, Wilko was seasoned after ten previous starts, not like the Americans, a collection long on talent but decidedly short on experience. And, of course, Wilko would thrive over the extended mile, which wasn’t sure to suit the Americans in an unusually small field. All very well reasoned.

But then, those dirt credentials applied equally — if not more so — to Scandinavia. By Fusaichi Pegasus, the Kentucky Derby winner, he is a half-brother to Composure, runner-up in the Juvenile Fillies’ two years ago. What’s more, Scandinavia had finished one place ahead of Wilko in the Royal Lodge. Yet on Saturday, Scandinavia finished last behind Wilko, beaten 16 lengths. Go figure.

But to return to Noseda, his thoughts endeared because at the end of his dissertation, he broke into a huge smile and said: “Really, all I hoped for was a small slice of it. Never in my wildest dreams did I think we would take the whole lot.”

Wilko’s triumph was one for opportunism at the expense of cold logic. It was a triumph for the have-a-go attitude that increasingly deserts those who campaign horses.

So with no burden of expectation, Noseda was relaxed the day before the Juvenile. “The horse has worked well on our Newmarket dirt gallop,” he said, “but it’s not the same as in a race. You cannot say how horses will cope when they race on it for the first time. We will roll the dice and see how things turn out.”

Granted, Wilko might not have run at all had Paul Reddam, an American, not bought 75 per cent of him earlier this season. The horse is destined for the California stable of Craig Dollase. He was in transit; why not run? It’s a question many domestic owners and trainers should be asking themselves in the wake of Britain’s two-for-two raid on Texas.

And Wilko was not alone. The same adventurous spirit from Singletary’s owners was just as handsomely rewarded. Why was Singletary, a humble $3,200 (about £1,745) yearling from Chicago’s backwaters, mixing it with Europe’s best milers on grass? The four-year-old delivered the answer by resisting a pair of European bluebloods in Antonius Pius and Six Perfections. His owners rolled the dice and the crap shoot was theirs.