French raider's Melbourne joy

A French trainer, a Hong Kong-based jockey and Australian owners were celebrating today as Americain landed the Melbourne Cup.

The five-year-old, who is trained in France by Alain de Royer-Dupre, showed a good turn of foot under Gerald Mosse to power home clear in the 150th running of the prestigious two-mile handicap.

But it wasn't what the majority of the Flemington crowd had hoped to see. They had ploughed into dual Cox Plate hero So You Think, who was sent off the shortest-priced favourite in 39 years.

However, Mosse rode a perfectly-judged race to triumph by just under three lengths in the £3.73million event.

So You Think made steady progress down the outside and looked a likely winner when hitting the front over a furlong out.

But Mosse had the move covered and made a winning challenge on the 11-1 shot, with Maluckyday (5-1) also weaving through to pip the 7-5 favourite for second. Holberg fared best of the British raiders in sixth under Frankie Dettori, who is still looking for his 100th Group One winner for Godolphin.