Doing his homework has paid off for apprentice Ethan Brown aboard O'Lonera at Pakenham.

The Cindy Alderson-trained O'Lonera snapped a 16-month absence from the winner's circle in Saturday's Hanson BM78 Handicap (2000m), defeating Casta by two lengths, with Shangani Patrol another neck away third.

Brown sat just behind the leaders on O'Lonera ($9.50) but got rolling from about 700m and had hit the front with 600m to go.

He held his rivals at bay in the straight and Brown said he had tried to emulate what Nick Hall had done on O'Lonera in back-to-back wins at Caulfield in August 2016.

Those two victories were part of a three-race winning run for O'Lonera that campaign but the gelding had not won in 10 starts since.

"Nick Hall won two races on him at Caulfield and I watched most of his replays and watched those two in particular," Brown said.

"I rode him in work during the week and Cindy told me how to ride him. I just watched Nick Hall's rides on him and copied Nick Hall and that was the key to him.

"You've got to take off at the 700 metres on him and just keep him rolling. That's what I did today and he was too strong."

The victory was O'Lonera's fifth from 22 starts.

"He's a tricky little horse but when things go his way he can be quite dynamic," Alderson said.