A well judged front-running ride by apprentice Michael Dee has helped honest gelding Onpicalo to victory in Saturday's Legacy 2015 Badge Appeal Handicap at Caulfield.

Onpicalo ($3.80) was backing up from a close third over 1700m at Flemington last Saturday and Dee elected to dictate from the front on the Mick Price-trained six-year-old, who carried 52kg after Dee's two kilogram claim.

The horse was travelling well on the home turn and kicked away before holding off the late charge of Iggimacool ($2.70 favourite) who spotted the leader a big start before charging home to miss by three-quarters of a length.

Kesampour was another 3-1/4 lengths back third.

"We had a light weight today, the horse was very fit so we elected to go forward and just rate him easily through the early stages of the race and then slowly build the whole way," Dee said.

"He always keeps fighting to the line.

"He gave me a good kick on the turn. It was just a matter of the horse fighting on to the line and he did that very well."

Craig Williams, rider of Iggimacool, said the mare did an amazing job to get as close as she did at the finish.

"She's got devastating acceleration at the end," Williams said.

"Unfortunately the way the race was run, where she drew and how the race panned out, it made it really difficult for her."