Rain No Drain On Americain

Americain is only firming as favourite in the lead up to the 2011 Zipping Classic with the 2010 Melbourne Cup champion likely to receive perfect conditions at Sandown.

While adaptable on all surfaces Americain is best suited to ground with a little bit of cut in it.

After heavy downpours in Melbourne all week the surface was in the heavy ranges yesterday before improving to a slow today.

Should the skies remain clear over Melbourne for the next 24 hours it could improve again creating an ideal surface for Americain in the Zipping Classic.

“If the fine weather continued I would be confident it would get to a Dead 5 reading,” Sandown track manager Tim Bailey said.

Stephanie Nigge is the travelling foreman looking after Americain for the Alain Royer-Dupre stables and she’s put the opposition on notice.

“He will like it for sure,” she said.

“The firm track at Flemington wasn’t a big problem as he ran the fastest last sectionals, but a wet track is better for him.”

Americain hasn’t had a slow track since the 2010 Melbourne Cup and we all saw what he managed to do on that ground.

In terms of dead tracks, he’s run on them six times in his career and claimed four wins in the process.

The only other possible issue with the horse could be the tiny five horse field however that too is tipped to only help his chances tomorrow afternoon.

“He’s a very easy to ride,” Nigge said.

“He can settle in front or back. It’s not a big deal with him.”

Should he win tomorrow’s race and come through it well there’s every chance he will then continue on to the Hong Kong Vase.

He ran third in the corresponding race last year and if he were to return there would be three horse’s competing which also ran in the 2011 Melbourne Cup.

Both champion Dunaden and runner up Red Cadeaux are already confirmed for the Hong Kong feature in December.

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