It’s being labelled as one of the greatest ever Melbourne Cup rides, but Vow And Declare’s connections didn’t know what Craig Williams was doing.

The four-year-old gelding had settled in the back half of the field in his stellar second-place in the the Caulfield Cup, and a similar plan was expected for Tuesday.

But, jumping from the awkward barrier 21 in a slowly-run race, Craig Williams found himself leading in the early stages before slotting directly behind the leaders.

Owner Paul Lanskey admits he was surprised.

“Geez that wasn’t the tactics that had been mentioned,” Lanskey said to himself, he revealed to the 3AW Sportsday team tonight.

Trainer Danny O’Brien described it as the winning move.

“It takes a lot of balls to do it, and he did it,” O’Brien told the Sportsday team.

Click PLAY to hear the owner and trainer chat with 3AW from their celebrations at O’Connell’s in South Melbourne

(Photo by Daniel Pockett/Getty Images)