Le Palmier’s best asset is his speed and trainer Tony Gollan’s plan to make full use of it has reaped dividends with the speedster running his rivals ragged in the Swiss Ace Plate at the Sunshine Coast.

The short course specialist started at $9.50 and led throughout to defeat stablemate Sneaky Five ($19) by a half-length with $1.85 favourite Je Suis Belle third.

Gollan said he learned from Le Palmier’s last-start defeat on Melbourne Cup day and instructed jockey Jim Byrne to ride the horse aggressively, a tactic made easier when rival trainer Bjorn Baker opted to scratch the speedy Malkovich in preference for a race in Sydney.

“I must admit, when the fields came out and Malkovich was in the race, I was a much happier trainer when it was scratched,” Gollan told Sky Racing.

“It would have made the race a lot messier for him.

“You saw Le Palmier at his best today when he can draw a bit wide but he can control his breathing and flow like that.

“Our plan was to try to run fast overall time and just let him do what he does well and that’s run fast and he got the job done nicely.”

Le Palmier has now posted seven of his eight wins over 1000m with Byrne in the saddle for five of those.

The top Queensland jockey said the gelding could always be relied upon to perform, provided he flew the gates.

“He’s a bit of a thinker, he does a few things wrong in the barriers,” Byrne said.

“If he jumps well, he is pretty hard to catch because he just jumps out and he likes to roll along.”

Sneaky Five was having her first run for the stable having been previously prepared by Ciaron Maher and David Eustace and Gollan was rapt with her performance.

He believes that effort has set the stage for a fruitful Queensland summer carnival.

“The runner up, new to the stable, gee she is going to have a red light on her for the rest of the summer,” Gollan said.

“She is a serious horse but La Palmier, it’s all honours to him today.”

There was also an upset result in the Mooloolaba Cup (1600m) with the Peter and Will Hulbert-trained Hail Manhattan ($31) upstaging his rivals to claim the $150,000 feature by three-quarters of a length over Aussie Nugget ($7.50) and Street Dancer ($10).