Americain jockey fined for kiss

Winning French jockey Gerald Mosse has been fined by stewards for blowing a kiss to the crowd before the finish post in the Melbourne Cup, reports said.

Jubilant Hong-Kong-based Mosse, 43, was well clear on French stayer Americain in the final stages of Tuesday's 3,200-metre (2-mile) Cup, when he turned to the roaring 110,000 Flemington crowd and blew an extravagant kiss.

While later facing the stewards over his minor infraction of the rules, Mosse was told it was an offence in Australian racing to make a celebratory gesture before the winning post and was fined 300 dollars (296 US).

Mosse was apologetic as he explained that he gestured a kiss to the crowd, but believed that in Hong Kong it might have been a different rule.

"You know, I sort of got caught up with the crowd, the atmosphere, sort of," newspapers quoted Mosse as telling the stewards.

"I really wanted to thank them for coming -- they all got pretty wet but they kept cheering," he said.

Mosse had already been suspended on his first venture to Australia this spring when he won the Geelong Cup on Americain and was outed for causing interference.

Trainer Alain de Royer-Dupre has confirmed Americain will now be set for the Hong Kong International Cup next month.

Americain is also expected to return to Flemington next year to defend his Melbourne Cup crown, likely under a new trainer.

Australian co-owner Gerry Ryan said the six-year-old will be doing his future racing in Australia.

"His future is definitely here in Australia," Ryan told reporters.

"He will no longer be trained in France. We'll be targeting the autumn carnival here and we will be appointing a new trainer."

Americain, by US sire Dynamformer out of Irish mare America, became only the fourth northern hemisphere-trained horse to win in the 150 years of the Melbourne Cup along with Irish pair Vintage Crop (1993) and Media Puzzle (2002) and Japan's Delta Blues (2006).