Nash Rawiller is one of only a few people who are confident that Lucas Cranach can upstage the top galloper Americain in Group 1 Australian Cup next month.

Lucas Cranach and Americain will meet for the first time since the Melbourne Cup in the prestigious Australian Cup at Flemington on March 10.

The pair last met in last year’s Melbourne Cup, where Lucas Cranach beat Americain to third place by the skin of his teeth.

Americain has since run in, and won, the Group 2 Zipping Classic last November, while Lucas Cranach won his first-up start in the Group 2 Peter Young Stakes last weekend.

Rawiller said Lucas Cranach’s impressive victory last Saturday proved to him that the horse is more than capable of providing an upset in the Australian Cup against Americain.

“We’re all sort of in awe of Americain here in Australia on what he’s been able to achieve,” Rawiller said.

“What Lucas Cranach showed me on Saturday – I don’t think it’d be any walk in the park for Americain to take him on at a mile and a quarter the way he went the other day.”

Rawiller said he was thrilled to be included in the Lucas Cranach story.

“When I was offered the ride I was really excited. The way we train these horses in Australia so differently to overseas, I wasn’t at all concerned about his best form being over a mile and a half,” he said.

“Especially when I’d seen he’d won over a mile and a quarter.

“They get to the races really wound up and fit and probably with the speed trained out of them a little bit over there.

“You can see here how well he let down. He had a lot of strength.”

Lucas Cranach was purchased from Germany prior to the Melbourne Cup last year and has had a total of three race starts in Australia, where he has won $660,000 in prize money.