Damien Oliver well and truly broke his Group 1 drought in Sydney as Lucia Valentina capped a memorable day with a devastating win in the Queen Elizabeth Stakes at Royal Randwick.

Prior to winning on Azkadellia in the Queen Of The Turf Stakes, Oliver’s previous Group 1 win in the New South Wales capital had been Cedarberg back in The BMW of 2011.

“You never get sick of it. I’ve been doing this a long time and I’m certainly in the home straight of my career. You certainly cherish these moments at the end of your career,” he said.

“It has been a wonderful day and I don’t want it to end.”

Lucia Valentina’s victory in front of 25,195 racegoers was the 109th Group 1 of his illustrious career and one that he thought wasn’t likely in the run.

The Kris Lees-trained mare settled at the tail of the field and began improving on the back of runners approaching the home turn.

Oliver aimed for a run between rivals that closed quickly, leaving his momentum halted and his thoughts of success the furthest from his mind.

He managed to stay in the saddle, Lucia Valentina didn’t lose her desire and soon enough the pair were accelerating through the field like they had chimed in from the top of the straight.

The United States ran on to finish second while Happy Clapper surged late to finish third.

“Coming to the turn I had a lot of horse and not much room to go anywhere. I went up in between a couple as we straightened and I got shut out of that,” Oliver said.

“She picked herself up again and just went whoosh.

“At the furlong it was nearly all over. I went from the outhouse to the penthouse in about 200m from the 400m to the 200m. Even going back further I had nice horses in front of me, Happy Clapper and Criterion in front of him but they jammed up coming to the turn.

“I had to peel off and there was a narrow gap at the top of the straight which shut on me too.

“She picked herself up great though and went zoom.”

Lees targeted Lucia Valentina at the race second-up and he had been pleased with her progress following an eye-catching run in the Coolmore Classic.

"It’s very rewarding when you set a horse for a race so far out,” he said.

"I just thought I had to do something a bit different, thinking I would be taking on Winx to be fair.

"She’s got a terrific turn of foot, she’s so effective at 2000m and she loves a gap between runs, I don’t know why it took me so long to do it.

"I just wanted to get her here with fresh legs, she didn’t have a spell, she just had a little bit of time off so she got here in really good order. I had no doubt about her being effective second-up.”

Racing.com