Bowman, 29, who was formerly Darren Weir's stable foreman in Warrnambool, saddles up the veteran galloper in the $150,000 Midfield Group Wangoom Handicap (1200m) on Wednesday.

"It would be big for my training career if Rain Affair can win the Wangoom," he said.

"I've only been training for just over nine months and in that time I've trained 15 winners and four of those are in town but a win in one of the flat features at my home town carnival would be massive.

“I've targetted Rain Affair at the Wangoom. He's been in work for a fair while for this race."

Bowman admitted he was worried Rain Affair had not won a race in nearly three years but took great heart from the way the galloper’s work.

"Rain Affair has old legs which have wear and tear," he said. "We take him to the beach every day and he seems to have thrived on that sort of preparation.

“We gave him a track gallop at Terang over 800 metres last week just to clean his wind out and he went really good.

“We've drawn a nice barrier, got a soft track and he's got a good first-up record so we've got a few important things in our favour. I'm sure he'll be really competitive."

Bowman has rewarded young jockey Damien Thornton with the ride on the eight-year-old.

"Damien's put in the hard yards," he said.

"He's done a lot of the work on Rain Affair at trials and jump-outs. He's got a really good understanding of the horse."

The main danger is promising three-year-old Stella Collision trained at Weir's Warrnambool satellite stable. Weir's Warrnambool foreman Jarrod McLean said Stella Collision oozed potential.

"He goes really good," McLean said. "Stella Collision is poorly weighted under the weight scale for the race but I reckon he can more than make up for it just on his ability."

Melbourne Cup winning jockey Michelle Payne has the ride on Stella Collision.