GERRY Ryan won the Melbourne Cup with Americain, now he looks to have a great chance of winning his hometown Bendigo Cup with another imported galloper.
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Ryan, originally from Bendigo, is the major sponsor of the $250,000 Bendigo Cup (2400m) through his caravan company Jayco.
He has a wonderul opportunity to pocket a good percentage of the prizemoney of the October 31 Listed race with the Darren Weir-trained Puissance De Lune.
The grey gelding made it three wins from five Australian starts yesterday when it humiliated a restricted field over 2038m at Mornington.
Ridden by Bendigo hoop Brad Rawiller, Puissance De Lune made light work of its topweight of 60kg, winning in a canter by five lengths.
Puissance De Lune won one of his three starts in France over 1900m at Bordeaux before coming to Australia where he won first-up over 1700m at Warrnambool on May 3.
He followed that run with a convincing win over 1800m at Sandown before running fourth as an odds-on favourite over 2100m at the same track.
Weir gave the son of Shamardal a three-month spell before he resumed with an eye-catching fifth in the Gold Nuggett at Ballarat last month.
Rawiller is unbeaten in his three rides on the five-year-old, but is no certainty to ride Puissance De Lune in the Bendigo Cup.
Puissance De Lune’s rating lifted to 83 after yesterday’s win which would probably see the horse get the minimum weight of 53kg in the Bendigo Cup. Rawiller, who is yet to win his hometown cup, doesn’t ride that light.
Meanwhile, promising stayer Excluded is the likely Bendigo Cup runner for the powerful Lloyd Williams racing team.
Williams won last year’s cup with Tanby after previously winning the race with Gallic in 2004 and 2006.
Excluded, which has won seven of its 16 career starts, runs in the Group Two Herbert Power Handicap (2400m) at Caulfield on Saturday.
