The Quirindi galloper justified his status as the day’s hottest favourite at Tamworth with a stylish win in the FSDP Benchmark 70 Handicap (1200m) on Friday.

So You Know ($1.50fav) looked the standout on form after scratchings cut the field to seven runners and that is how it eventuated as he strolled home by two lengths from Captain Scott.

Jockey Ben Looker enjoyed an armchair ride as the Snippetson gelding stopped the clock in a time of 1.12.33 on an improving Heavy 8 surface, highlighted by a last 600m split of 36.76 seconds.

Trainer Scott Thompson said the next assignment for his stable star would be the $35,000 Walcha Cup (1440m) on February 10.

“It’s Walcha now and then Quirindi (Cup) if he runs well,” Thompson said.

“He’s a beautiful old horse, I wish I had a stable full of them.”

So You Know lifted his prizemoney earnings past the $100,000 barrier following the eighth win of his 50-start career, five of which have come at Tamworth.

“He just loves the place,” Thompson said.

“He looked the winner on paper and did it really well.”

Looker has built up a winning affinity with So You Know in a short period of time.

“I’ve only ridden him the past three starts for two wins and a second,” he said.

“When the scratchings came the race fell away a bit, but he did the job well.”

STANNIS Baratheon might be a dead and buried character from the Game Of Thrones series but his equine namesake is thriving in a new location.

Formerly trained in Victoria, the little five-year-old gelding transferred to Tamworth in December when he was one of five horses purchased by Queensland miner, Kris Thomas.

Thomas, who was a talented rugby league player with the then successful Tamworth High side, has raced a number of horses over the last two decades.

Mark Hatch has trained most of them and was only happy to receive Stannis Baratheon and then watch him surge clear for a two length win on Friday.

“He’s been working real well and while it was his first run I did expect that. I didn’t know what he’d been doing down there but he has been working real nice since he’s been here,” Hatch said.

“When I looked at his form and he had wet track form I was even more confident.”

The $9 on offer about him was also a nice bonus to go with the prizemoney.

“And he does have form over a longer distance too,” he said.

In other results, De La Hoya landed a knockout blow and continued a good run for odds-on pops in the Tamworth City Toyota Class 2 Handicap (1000m).

Trained by Mark Mason and ridden by Robert Thompson, De La Hoya ($1.90) made it three wins from eight starts.

Dormeuse (Mark Schmetzer/Terry Green) did a nice job in race two, the Corey’s Catering Benchmark 55 Handicap (1400m), while Delagos (Bryan Dixon/Chloe Baker) saluted in the last.