But the David Hayes trained and owned stayer Boom Time proved that adage is not always true when he produced one of the biggest boilovers in recent Caulfield Cup history to take the great race at odds of $51.

The former Western Australian trained galloper might not have been bred to be a distance horse as he is by the Golden Slipper winning sprinter Flying Spur.

And the odds of him reaching such heights would have been long indeed when he injured a tendon as a younger horse, forcing him to have more than a year off the track.

But the six-year-old entire has proved himself to be the epitome of toughness and dependability since his return from his lay off and he showed that with the right treatment and patience a good horse can retain plenty of the ability he had before injury laid him low.

It was an emotional success for his rider, battling New Zealand jockey Cory Parish, who was registering his first group 1 success when he got up to beat the always prominent Single Gaze, with the Aidan O'Brien trained Irish raider and favourite Johannes Vermeer third.

Single Gaze's regular rider, Sydney based Kathy O'Hara, went agonisingly close to emulating the feats of Michelle Payne on the runner up by becoming the first female jockey to win the Caulfield Cup. Payne rode into history in 2015 when she won the Melbourne Cup on 100-1 shot Prince of Penzance.

Johannes Vermeer was trying to give his Irish trainer O'Brien what would have been a record equalling 25th group 1 winner of the season.

He finished off well under Ben Melham but had to settle for third, ahead of another English import, the lightly weighted Lord Fandango, who gave his Ballarat based young English trainer Archie Alexander an enormous thrill by coming so close.

Darren Weir had enjoyed an enormously successful day up to that point and his top weight, Humidor, ran with great credit to finish fifth.

Parish is the epitome of the low-profile jockey who struggles to get rides on metropolitan Saturdays, never mind in one of the greatest races on the calendar.

But it is the association he has paved with the master of Lindary Park, Hayes, and his training partners Tom Dabernig and Hayes son Ben, that paved the way for his greatest moment in the saddle so far.

Parish moved across to Australia five years ago in a bid to get more opportunities in a country where prizemoney is significantly greater than it is in his homeland.

He struggled for a couple of years, but by linking up with the Hayes outfit, initially as a work rider, the rewards have started to come.

"I could not ask for any more," the delighted rider said post race.

"I have been working for David. He owns the whole horse and he had the faith to put me up today and I just wanted to repay him. It's fantastic."

Boom Time has grown in stature over the past year but his starting price reflected what most punters thought of his chance: that he was a handy front-running type who would be in the race for a long way but probably lacked the class to be in the final shake-up.

That opinion might have been reinforced by a glance at the form book which would have shown he finished behind Lord Fandango in the group 2 Herbert Power Stakes last week when he was beaten by 2.3 lengths trying to concede his adversary 3.5 kilos.

On Cup Day, the galloper wearing the number 13 saddlecloth was only looking to give Lord Fandango two kilos (Boom Time carried 52 to the other's 50) and that turn round was enough for him to turn the tables.

Parish said he was confident he would do so.

"He was the only horse who finished off, and I thought if he could relax he could do it."

Do it he did, and in great style.