The nicely-bred gelding had been running in much stronger city-class races last preparation, but underlined his talent with a breakthrough win on his home track, with Fliedner's nephew Harry Coffey in the saddle.

It added to a string of wins for Fliedner on Bendigo Cup day during his training career, most recently with Flying Spark in 2017.

The astute trainer, who had three runners on cup day, admitted a fair degree of confidence with Hi Stranger, who produced a third at Flemington in a two-year-old race back in June.

"We set him for this race - well, we set him for a lot more than this - but this was his kick-off point," Fliedner said.

"We thought he would get away with 1100m. At his first start down the straight (at Flemington) he only got beaten a couple of lengths.

"All he had to do was bring his game to work today and he was right."

Among the gelding's rivals was the heavily-backed Hay Cliffy, who finished just outside the placings in fourth for his Bendigo trainer Arthur Pace.

The four-year-old was making his race debut after impressing in a recent trial at Kyneton and started the race a $2.50 favourite.

The Kyneton-traIned Showbag finished sixth in the small field of seven runners.

Winning jockey Coffey, who has ridden Hi Stranger in all five of his starts, was rapt to deliver a local win.

"Obviously Shane and (wife) Briga are locals here and they have a massive group of owners who are locals, and I have had a fair bit to do with the horse, so it was pretty rewarding," he said.

"It was a bit of a funny old ride, I drew one and tried to get to the clear, but lost a fair bit of ground doing so.

"But I rode him like the best horse (in the race); I thought he was a fair bit better than the field today and that showed late.

"He was actually still pretty green when he hit the front, I thought the most improvement I saw today was he was able to take a tactical spot early.

"I could have box-seated, but just to get away from the rail and give him plenty of clear room, I decided to come back and circle (the field) because I know he has a touch of class."

A handy day at the office for Coffey included a third aboard the Brent Stanley-trained Haski in the 1100m benchmark 78 and a second on Ruby Skye in the second last race.

Fliedner said it was always nice to land a winner on Bendigo Cup day, something he has managed with frequency over the past decade.

The dual Group 3-winning trainer would have been encouraged by the effort of his mare Clever Spark, who finished third in the day's opening event behind the smart Danny O'Brien-trained filly Zoujea.

The four-year-old was attempting back-to-back victories after a win at Echuca in mid-October.

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