Hamer won the Class 1 Handicap (1175m) with recent stable addition Coutinho and finished second in the Benchmark 64 with Aspirate.

Coutinho looks capable of working his way through the classes and Aspirate will be set for the Devonport Cup if he shows he can stay.

Hamer and Scott Aldridge, manager of the Dew Head Racing Syndicate, found Coutinho online and now race him with a big group of owners.

"We bought him through the gavelhouse.com auction site for about $8000 so he's paid for himself already," Hamer said.

"I liked him because the day he won his maiden (at Werribee) he beat a horse of Pat Hyland's (called Annunciate) that went on to win four of his next six starts and run second in the other two.

"I've followed Pat's horses ever since I worked there so I knew Annunciate went alright and this horse beat him over 1600m."

Coutinho was previously trained by Anthony Freedman and raced by a big syndicate which Hamer suspected was probably only interested in city horses.

"I think he'll do well here - he's got heaps of improvement in him," Hamer said.

"I was going to wait for a 1350m race next week, which would have suited him better, but after Craig Newitt rode him a trial he told me that he'd be competitive in anything we ran him in."

Coutinho slotted into a nice midfield position from his wide gate and ran home strongly to win narrowly.