Rousseau, ridden by Damien Oliver, wins at Moonee Valley (Image: Racing Photos)
Champion rider Damien Oliver found a simple solution to the frustrating trend of muddling-run middle-distance races by producing a seemingly daring mid-race move about Rousseau at The Valley on Saturday.
Rousseau and Oliver were back in the ruck with just over half of the 2040-metre journey completed in the $130,000 Martin Ralston Cup when the speed dramatically came out of the race.
“I’m sick of farcically run races as we saw in the first few - ridiculously slow tempo and it was just no hope where I was," Oliver explained.
“I wasn’t interfering with the horse, he was spending no petrol and it was the best thing I did.
“The tempo completely came out of the race mid-race. He was bold and he kept going, it was a good effort."
WATCH: Rousseau wins at The Valley
Punters could have got $9 about the Chris Waller-trained galloper who sailed away to a three and three quarter length win from Aurora’s Symphony ($13) with a length and a quarter to Shakespeare ($31) in third place.
Waller's stable representative Jo Taylor paid tribute to Oliver’s handling of the slowly improving son of So You Think.
"Damien, when he made that mid-race move, it was either going to be detrimental or genius but when you’ve got someone like Damien aboard, I think it shows," Taylor said.
"You just trust his judgement when you have a jockey with his expertise you let them do the riding and they certainly know their races and how to sum them up and I think it showed today.”