A reverse routing system optimizes execution of a query that accesses data stored in one or more materialized query tables in a database of a computer system. The system receives a query directly referencing the materialized query table. The system identifies the referenced materialized query tables in a catalogue of materialized query tables and a defining query associated with the referenced materialized query table. The system substitutes the defining query for the referenced materialized query table in the received query. The system adds the referenced materialized query table to the set of eligible materialized query tables that are selected using query matching algorithms so that they can be considered for routing by the query optimizer.