Americain wins Geelong Cup for France
Australian trainers are used to the annual onslaught from British and Irish-based runners at their most cherished prize.
But now they face a new challenge for the Emirates Melbourne Cup after French runner Americain won the Group Three Geelong Cup, with the best weight-carrying performance, of 58 kg (9st 2lb), in the race for over 40 years.
However, the race was not so successful for Luca Cumani. The Newmarket trainer, who was runner-up in the Melbourne Cup with Purple Moon in 2007 and Bauer 12 months later, ran the well-fancied Drunken Sailor, ridden by Brett Pebble, who finished 11th of 15 runners and with a cut to his near-fore hoof.
It is the third European-trained winner in the Geelong Cup in the past eight years, following on from Media Puzzle (2002) and Bauer (2008) but the portents had looked good for Americain, who is trained by Alain de Royer-Dupre, on the run to the home turn. Gerald Mosse had him settled in about fifth on the rail, as The Hombre and Miles Above led the field down the back straight. But Americain had been shuffled back and Mosse was trapped on the rail and faced with a wall of horses as the field hit the home straight but squeezed through a gap between horses, just off the rail at around the furlong pole.
Once he found daylight, Americain burst clear to beat Moudre by a head, with Exceptionally a half-length away in third.
Mosse has long been regarded as a cool rider on the European circuit and showed all his usual dash in the rough and tumble of the finish, which was despite riding under a stay of proceedings to his appeal against a 10-meeting suspension he received from the Caulfield stewards on Saturday following his ride on Mr Medici in the Group One Caulfield Cup.
Americain has already proven his stamina for the two-mile trip in the Melbourne Cup by winning the Group Two Prix Kergolay, over just a furlong shorter, at Deauville in August. "I was quite confident before coming here. He makes me a little bit more relaxed now," Mosse said after the race.
"He travelled inside. It was a bit of a rough race. I waited for my time and when I got through it was no race. He is a beautiful animal. He was coming off a break and is in perfect shape,” he said, adding of his chances in the Melbourne Cup next month. “He will be strong."
Drunken Sailor is now unlikely to gain a run in the Melbourne Cup, leaving Cumani with Manighar and Bauer as his runners.
The only horse to achieve the Geelong-Melbourne Cup double in the same year in the last decade was Media Puzzle, trained by Dermot Weld eight years ago.
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