Matt Cumani’s imported galloper Grey Lion may have failed to run out a strong two miles in the Melbourne Cup but the Ballarat-based horseman is confident the horse will be better targeting the 2017 Australian Cup this time in.

The former French-trained Galileo stallion debuted down under last October and caught the eye running a close second to Qewy in the Group 3 Geelong Cup (2400m).

From there he went into the ‘race that stops a nation’ at Flemington on the first Tuesday of November.

Despite the good Geelong Cup lead-up the OTI Racing-owned Grey Lion could only manage to run nearly 14 lengths back 14^th behind Almandin in the Group 1 Melbourne Cup (3200m).

Subsequent evaluation has convinced Cumani the galloper isn’t a genuine 3200m stayer and he hopes Grey Lion can atone and win a Group 1 in Australia over the upcoming Melbourne Autumn Racing Carnival.

Cumani named the Group 1 Australian Cup (2000m) at Flemington on March 11 followed by a trip to Sydney a fortnight later for the $1.5 million Group 1 The BMW (2400m) over the mile and a half at Rosehill Gardens as two nice autumn aims for the horse.

“We’re on a bit of a tight schedule with him,” Cumani – the son of infamous trainer Luca – told Racing Victoria this week.

“He needed a little bit of work done on his foot. He’s absolutely fine, but it just meant to have a slightly longer spell than intended.

“He gets nominated today for the Australian Cup. That might be a good, ideally, second-up run, but we’ll have to see if we can get him ready in time to have a prep run.

“I think working up to a finale for him; an ambitious target is The BMW might be a race for him.

“We’ll be avoiding 3200m races. As he showed in the Melbourne Cup, he ran well but didn’t stay, so 2000-2400m is his go this time around.”

Cumani was also unfazed by talk from past trainers of the galloper who said he didn’t handle rain-affected courses and would be more than happy to give the horse on soft tracks in Sydney to see for himself.

“The chat from France was that he didn’t go on soft ground,” he said.

“We’ll probably try and avoid it, but if it comes up soft for one of his races, we’ll give him a go on it because I’d like to experience that first-hand before I believe anything that comes out of his previous career in France.”

The Australian Cup has produced two The BMW winners in the past six years including Preferment (2016) last season who completed the double for legendary Sydney trainer Chris Waller.

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