Melbourne Cup winner Shocking will wear different shoes but trainer Mark Kavanagh says the stallion is fit enough to run in Saturday’s Group I Australian Cup (2000m) at Flemington.

Kavanagh scratched Shocking from last week’s Australian Cup meeting on Saturday morning with a foot abscess before weather intervened, forcing the $1 million event to be postponed for a week.

In accordance with the rules of racing, Shocking was reinstated into the field which gave Kavanagh a chance to get the son of Street Cry back to fitness.

“At this stage, he’s much better than he was last Saturday morning,” Kavanagh said. “We’re feeling pretty optimistic.”

“His foot’s a lot better right now. I reckon he’s 100 percent. These things could change and they could flare up again but he was 100 percent this morning.”

Kavanagh said Shocking only missed “a little bit of work” because of the problem but he has been able to give the four-year-old a couple of gallops leading into Saturday’s feature.

“He missed last Saturday morning but we swum him on Sunday,” Kavanagh said. “We paceworked him on Monday and Tuesday and gave him a good searching gallop on Wednesday morning.”

Kavanagh said Shocking would race in three-quarter race plates to take the pressure off the injured area which was tightly bound and packed with a poultice on Thursday morning.

“We’ll put him in the three-quarter plates as a precaution,” Kavanagh said. “It will shorten the shoe by a couple of inches to relieve any lingering pressure on the area.”

Michael Rodd will ride Shocking, who is a $7.50 second favourite to win the Australian Cup on TAB Sportsbet markets.