Racing: Oliver wins feature race

Damien Oliver. Photo / NZ Herald

Travel-weary jockey Damien Oliver has kicked back with a feature-race win on pony-sized three-year-old Liveandletdie in the Creswick Stakes at Flemington.

Oliver, who is a regular at the big carnivals, decided to miss Saturday's Stradbroke Handicap meeting in Brisbane to ride the Mark Kavanagh-trained colt who threaded his way through the field to land the 1200m Listed event in a nail-biting finish.

The son of Street Cry was buried back worse than midfield, but Oliver drove him to the lead at the 100m mark and he held off a late challenge from Spurcific to win by a half-head with Secession 1 lengths away third.

Oliver, who recently returned from a three-week break following a suspension in Hong Kong, said Liveandletdie showed good acceleration when he asked him to go at the 300m.

"He's a horse who likes to settle back off the speed and he's got a good finish," Oliver said. "The key with him is not to arrive too early.

Kavanagh said size was against Liveandletdie, who stands around 15 hands, and that the set weights and penalty conditions of the Creswick suited him on Saturday.

"He's only a little pony really," Kavanagh said. "He didn't grow as much as we wanted him to and that has probably held him back. "He will go out now and when he comes back we will see if we can find something for him during the [spring] carnival down the straight here."

- AAP