Mosse knows Americain will give his all again

Americain’s owner Gerry Ryan gave Frenchman Gerald Mosse videos of the Melbourne Cup to study before he came to Victoria to ride the horse in Australia’s greatest race.

Mosse, who says that at 43 he is mature but not a veteran, decided to do a little extra study of the Cup when he arrived for its 150^th running.

To that end he bought a copy of The Story of the Melbourne Cup, Australia’s Greatest Race, the book published at the start of the 2010-2011 season.

“It was a magnificent book because of the story of the culture,” Mosse explained after trackwork at Sha Tin in Hong Kong this morning. “I wanted to understand the culture and why there was such prestige to win a race like that.”

Mosse got more than an inkling from the book, and found out personally how big the race was when, on November 2, he won it on Americain. The win, and the whole atmosphere of Cup day, blew him away.

But Mosse and the horse – and all connections, including French trainer Alain de Royer-Dupre and owners Kevin and Colleen Bamford and Gerry and Val Ryan – are not resting on their laurels.

Americain was despatched to Hong Kong before returning to Europe and on Sunday will start favourite in the $HK14 million (almost $A2 million) Group 1 Cathay Pacific Internatinal Vase (2400m).

“Everything so far is perfect. I’m very happy with him,” said Mosse, who splits his time between his contract with the Hong Kong Jockey Club and riding for de Royer-Dupre, who is based in Chantilly (France). The pair, by the way, won the Vase last year with Daryakana.

Of Americain dropping back in distance from 3200 to 2400 metres, Mosse said: “I don’t think it will be a problem, in my opinion. The ground being a bit harder will be my concern.

“Right-handed, too, he will be much better than Melbourne.” (Hong Kong races the Sydney way, whereas Melbourne races are run left-handed or anti-clockwise.)

However, Mosse stopped short of declaring Americain a good thing in the Vase. “We are going to be competitive, but this is international Group 1 form that the horse has never beaten so far,” he said.

“He beat the best in two-mile horses in Australia, but a mile and a half is a bit different. It’s a different kind of tactics for your horse, but he showed me that he is very honest and will do his best.”

Americain (b/br h 6, Dynaformer (USA)-America (IRE), by Arazi (USA)) did steady work on the all-weather track this morning.

Australia’s Group 1 $HK14 million Sprint representative Ortensia (b m 5, Testa Rossa-Aerate’s Pick, by Picnicker) appears to have taken no harm from an earlier incident at Sha Tin where she was spooked by a cat, dumped track rider Jake Noonan and jumped a rail.

Bandaged on both legs she worked smoothly on the turf this morning.

The Sunday meeting has four Group 1s – the $HK16 million Mile over 1600 metres and the $HK20 million Cup over 2000 metres are the other two.

Tonight’s lead-in meeting at Happy Valley has a different “quadrella”, with four races in an international jockeys’ challenge that has a Who’s Who of riders, including two Australians – Nash Rawiller, based in Sydney, will represent Australia and Brett Prebble will ride for Hong Kong. Prebble sits second on the local premiership to South African Douglas Whyte, who also will represent Hong Kong, as will Howard Cheng, the top-placed local rider.

Prebble is an early favourite to win the series, having drawn what looks like the strongest book.

(The Story of the Melbourne Cup, Australia’s Greatest Race is published by the Slattery Media Group. RRP $99.95)

Photo: In full flight: Gerald Mosse gives Americain a testing gallop at Sha Tin.