Americain wins Melbourne Cup

Americain gave France its first victory in the $6 million Melbourne Cup Handicap at Flemington on Tuesday as the Kentucky-bred son of Dynaformer rallied wide in the closing stages for a 2 3/4-length victory over Maluckyday.

Ridden to perfection by Gerald Mosse, the Alain de Royer-Dupre-trained 5-year-old, who is owned by Melbourne residents Gerry Ryan and Kevin Bamford, was winning for the fifth straight time, adding to his scores in the Group 2 Prix Kergorlay at Deauville and the Group 3 Geelong Cup just 13 days ago. Sent off as the 12-1 favorite in a field of 23 going two miles, Americain followed the move of the 2-1 favorite, the Bart Cummings-trained So You Think, but proved much the best in the end. So You Think himself had run just three days earlier when winning the 1 1/2-mile, Group 1 Mackinnon Stakes at Flemington, but was not up to the task over the longer distance. The winning time for the 2 miles run on soft ground was 3:26.87.

Zipping, who had finished fourth in this race in 2006 and 2007, finished fourth again. The William Haggas-trained Harris Tweed was fifth with Godolphin’s Saeed bin Suroor-trained Holberg sixth and the Luca Cumani-trained Manighar seventh. A second Cumani trainee, last year’s nose runner-up Bauer, was a late scratch.

Trained briefly by Todd Pletcher last year, American will travel to Hong Kong for the 1 1/2-mile, Hong Kong Vase at Sha Tin on Dec. 12. He will remain in training next year in France with Royer-Dupre with a second Melbourne Cup his ultimate target.