A potent Brew leaves Brits with a hangover

However, his trainer James Fanshawe was not too disheartened.

"Like Travelmate last year, he has run a really good race. He was coming there round the bend nice and smooth and just got stopped but that's the race - it's very rough and everything has to go your way. He was stopped again in the straight but then he flew and just got tired in the last hundred yards.

"It's a very tough race to win but I'd love to come back again because it's a real challenge.

"You can't win it if you don't have a runner and I am determined to do it."

While Arctic Owl ran an admirable, if unlucky, race, the other international horses were barely sighted. Enzeli never got into a challenging position under Greg Hall and finished 15th. Trainer John Oxx described it as Enzeli's "worst run of his life".

Just behind him in 17th was Frankie Dettori, who had been in the sauna to do his lightest weight this season of 8st 5lb. Lightning Arrow was not good enough and the Godolphin team conceded that they had brought the wrong horse. They vowed to be back next year with a more classy individual.

Most disappointing of all was Far Cry, who had been well fancied beforehand and represented the ten-times champion jumps trainer Martin Pipe.

Far Cry was slowly away from the stalls, had to be pushed up to the leaders by the new champion jockey Kevin Darley and did not look happy from nearly a mile out. He faded to finish second last. Pipe said: "He never ran his race and was just very disappointing. It was too bad to be true really, but we don't know what was wrong with him. He looked well enough and wore blinkers for the first time, but it's too early to say what might have been the problem."

Despite Far Cry's failure Pipe is not giving up on the Melbourne Cup yet.

"We've had a great experience and really enjoyed it. It's been a great adventure and my congratulations go to the winning trainer. It certainly hasn't put us off coming here again."

Kevin Darley echoed Pipe's sentiments that it had been a wonderful occasion but was depressed that Far Cry had been so lacklustre.

He commented: "From seven furlongs out he was a spent horse and I promise you when you're a beaten horse here you're invisible - they came past him as if he wasn't there. It's a bit of a let down and I just hope the horse comes out of it okay. He'll live to fight another day but it's a very long way to come out for that."

The more the years go by since Vintage Crop's success in 1993, the more one has to wonder whether the Melbourne Cup can ever be won again by a Northern Hemisphere-based horse. The journey is one thing, but the fact that the race is a handicap makes it even harder to crack.

The crucial factor seems to be the weight and having seen Brew win with only 7st 10lb it raises the question of whether anyone in Britain would be able to produce a horse who is good enough to be qualified but not to good that he gets handicapped out of contention.

Pipe, Fanshawe and the Godolphin team are determined to give it another go but there will be plenty of others who view this as a task that is just too difficult.