Tucanchoo has rewarded punters with his Winter Cup win at Rosehill despite some tactical confusion.

Earlier this week, trainer David Payne announced that, against his usual pattern, Foreign Prince would not lead in Saturday's Listed race at his first attempt at 2400 metres.

With Jason Collett doing his best to restrain Foreign Prince ($4), favourite Tucanchoo ($2.70) assumed the front position, going as slowly as Christian Reith could hold him.

Junoob ($8.50) momentarily took over until Brenton Avdulla on Swift Lady forced the issue and put some pace into the race.

Reith kept Tucanchoo in his comfort zone and he had plenty in reserve, going on to beat Junoob by 1-3/4 lengths with Foreign Prince another three lengths third.

"I followed Junoob and was where I wanted to be," Reith said.

"He relaxed and did the rest."

Tucanchoo's win came not longer after Longeron brought up a century of winners for the season for Hawkes Racing at Caulfield.

Stable representative Tania Rouse said she was unsure whether Tucanchoo, who finished second in last Saturday's Tattersall's Cup at Eagle Farm, would go much deeper into the winter.

"He is a tough, versatile stayer," she said.

"He is also a credit to the Hawkes' system of travelling up and down the highway to Melbourne and Brisbane.

"Christian rode his own race and let him relax which was the key to him when no-one wanted to go forward."

Collett said he would in fact have preferred to let Foreign Prince go forward.

"He's a one-paced stayer and I wanted to lead," he said.

"The instructions were not to.

"He relaxed all right and I think he ran the 2400 metres out as strongly as the winner."