Australia horse racing fans will be interested to know that in a race that wouldn’t have been ideally run to suit him, recent Emirates Melbourne Cup hero Americain put in a solid effort to finish a respectable third behind impressive winner Mastery in the Group 1 Hong Kong Vase at Sha Tin on Sunday.
Staying is very much the name of the game for the Alain de Royer-Dupre-trained five-year-old, who became the first French horse to win Australia’s greatest race when finishing powerfully over two miles at Flemington in November to beat Mayluckyday and local hero So You Think in such memorable fashion.
A fast run mile-and-a-half would have played to the stamina strengths of the son of Dynaformer, but with the race developing into a crawl for the first five furlongs it was always going to turn into a speed test, and although he stayed on very well to snatch third, Americain never looked likely to beat the impressive Mastery, who was given a masterful ride by Italian ace Frankie Dettori.
Sensing that there was no pace in the race, Dettori dashed the Godolphin horse into the lead two furlongs out and stole a march on the field. Canadian International winner Redwood, trained by Barry Hills, stayed on strongly to take second, two-and-a-half lengths behind the winner and half-a-length in front of Americain, with Japanese star Jaguar Mall keeping-on for fourth.
The Saeed bin Suroor-trained winner was returning to the top of his game having won last year’s final British classic, the St Leger at Doncaster, before two more solid efforts in upsetting the best odds by finishing third in the Breeders’ Cup Marathon at Santa Anita and then fifth to Gloria de Campeao in the Dubai World Cup in March. After a six month break, the son of Sulamani landed a small race at Kempton on the all-weather track, an outing which brought him cherry-ripe for this notable success in Hong Kong.
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