Tough, durable and hard to beat - Rebel's Romance is so likeable that he's practically a jumps horse

Time to write another love letter to Rebel's Romance. After all, since I penned the last one he's salted away another pair of top-level prizes, those two races taking place at tracks 4,000 miles apart.

On Saturday he was making it big in New York, winning the Joe Hirsch Turf Classic, which hadn't fallen to a British-based raider since Sulamani in 2003. Naturally, in view of his enormous ability, he was sent off at odds-on, but there was a lack of pace in this small-field contest which threatened to be problematic; veteran middle-distance types are rarely well suited by a tempo of slow-slow-dash for the line.

With William Buick riding flashy juveniles at Newmarket, a new jockey was required, so Godolphin dug up some US-based grafter who appears in racecards as L Dettori and has seemingly worked with the owners in the past. This cheeky upstart took it upon himself to go to the front on Rebel's Romance more than a circuit from home.