Damien Oliver showed that loyalty still has a place in racing and reaped a tidy reward as a result when Lion Of Belfort scored a courageous win in the Blue Sapphire at Caulfield on Saturday.

Oliver had the choice of riding either last-start winner Iconic or Lion Of Belfort in the $250,000 race and eventually went against the advice of form analysts and chose the latter.

Lion Of Belfort provided Oliver with a win at Geelong last month at his first ride back from a nine-month ban and the significance of that victory and the faith of trainer Mick Price kept him on the horse at Caulfield.

"It was a tough choice between him and Iconic but I just felt I had to honour Mick's commitment to me," Oliver said.

Having only his fourth start, Lion Of Belfort ($8) shoved through a tight opening at the 150m to score by three-quarters of a length from the favourite Safeguard ($4.60) with Diamond Oasis ($14) a further half length away in third.

Both trainer and jockey praised Lion Of Belfort's courage to take the vital gap when asked to, Price suggesting he could graduate to the Group One Coolmore Stud Stakes at Flemington on November 2.

"It was a small field but there was a bit of traffic and that's the second time this horse has got in traffic and won," Price said.

"He was pretty brave to go through those tight gaps."