By Matt Markham
Greg and Nina Hope gave up being surprised by Everybody Knows a long time ago.
So when the dour little trotter stepped out on Friday night in an underdone condition and beat a handy field of trotters, there was a little bit of head shaking from the Woodend Beach camp, but not too much shock.
“He’s done that for most of his career,” Greg Hope said.
“When you least expect him to go a great race, he’ll go out and run something like he did just then.”
Unsighted since winning in December 16, Everybody Knows extended the winning sequence to three on Friday night when he took full use of a quiet run on the markers and snuck up the fence to win.
“With nothing serious under the belt I thought we might be a bit vulnerable, but it panned out beautifully.”
The Quite Easy gelding has now eight of 38 career starts.
There’s always been a belief within the Hope stable that he would make it to open class at some point, but no one probably expected it to play out the way it has.
“I’ve known he’d make it to the top grade, but I just thought he’d do it through the back door.
“But it’s snuck up on us a wee bit.”
Everybody Knows will now be aimed and the Four & Five Year-Old Trotting Championships before taking on the big guns in some of the other open class trotting features at Addington.
“He follows speed pretty well, so he should be able to hold himself up well in those big races.”
Cullen Who enhanced her claims as a broodmare later in the night on Friday when she rated 1:55 for the mile to win the 1950 speed event.
The Ken and Tony Barron trained mare, who was a $100,000 purchase, was too good for her rivals, running them into the deck to win from Superfecta.
Blair Orange handled the mare on Friday night and she was the first leg of a driving treble for Orange as e went on to win with Reaza Grunter and Idle Monkey in the next two races.
His effort was only matched by Dexter Dunn who managed to win with Absolutely Delight, Raukapuka Ruler and Chevron Express.
Approved By Dean Baring www.harnessbred.com
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