The Peter Maher-trained Projeto defied a late betting drift when winning the $27,000 Benchmark 66 Handicap, (1000m) at Corowa on Tuesday.
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Ridden by Simon Miller, Projeto eased from $3.50 to $5 as the late money arrived for the Craig Widdison-trained Oh No Mikki ($3.40-fav).
The two Wodonga-trained gallopers cleared out from their rivals over the final furlong with Projeto too strong in the run to the post to win by a length.
The pair had a big margin over third-placed Bold Offa ($10) who was a further 2.5-lengths back in third.
Maher revealed he was forced to scratch Projeto from the recent Wodonga Cup meeting after the rain arrived on race day.
The four-year-old gelding was resuming from a 21-week spell.
The lightly raced Projeto made a winning debut at Albury in May and has now won two out of three career starts.
Maher was relatively confident in regards to the chances of Projeto after the galloper recently won a trial impressively at Benalla.
"I thought the horse trialled really well at Benalla," Maher said.
"We were going to run him on Wodonga Cup day but it poured rain and I decided to scratch him on the day.
"He drew barrier one and I thought he would have been extremely hard to beat that day before the rain arrived.
"But he made amends today and it was a really good run."
Maher felt Projeto's lack of experience and racing against older horses was the biggest concern pre-race.
"Coming up against seasoned campaigners... that's what I was worried about," he said.
"But the horse did a good job in the end.
"We won't rush the horse trying to find his next race and we have taken a patient approach all the way through so far.
"Michael Duffy who had a stint as RVL chairman is one of the main owners of this horse and he has been a great supporter of my stable.
"So it's good to see that he is a part of a fairly good horse.
"The horse has come back bigger and stronger compared to last preparation and Simon has done a lot of work with the horse in trackwork.
"So it was also nice to see Simon get the win today."
