RACING: Dejavu as No Hero falls

JOHN JENKINS
Punters who lost heavily when raging hot favourite No Hero went out at the first fence in last Saturday's Waikato Steeples can take some solace from the fact that it was the third time it has happened in the past 25 years.
No Hero, shooting for his ninth steeplechase win in a row, was backed as if unbeatable in win and place markets as well as carrying the hopes of the majority of Pick Six punters.
Thus a cry of disbelief rang through the crowd on course at Te Rapa when the horse, after a seemingly perfect jump at the first of the 24 fences in the 4900-metre event, knuckled over on landing and both he and rider Jonathan Riddell crashed to the ground.
The third favourite in the race, Crown Dancer, also lost rider Kara Waters at the same obstacle. It left the second favourite, Just The Man, clear in the lead and he was never headed.
Former jumps jockeys John McGifford and Graeme Lord know only too well how Jonathan Riddell must have felt as he picked himself up off the ground, with both having suffered the exact same fate in the past.
McGifford recalled yesterday how he was aboard hot favourite Arrest in the 1981 running of the Waikato Steeples but also fell at the first fence. While Lord was on the 1990 favourite in the race, Thorley, and also only got as far as the first fence before hitting the deck.
Both McGifford and Lord were on course at Te Rapa on Saturday to witness this year's Waikato Steeples and, as the field left the barrier, McGifford said he had a mental flashback.
"I suddenly had this premonition something was going to happen as I thought back to when Arrest and Thorley both fell at the first fence," McGifford said.
No Hero's Hawke's Bay owners Paul and Carol Nelson are still wondering what went wrong with the horse's landing gear on Saturday but, fortunately, both he and Riddell escaped the fall unscathed.
"Everything seems okay with the horse," Carol Nelson said, at the Hastings track yesterday.
She added that the grey is still being aimed at the $40,000 Hawke's Bay Steeples on July 1 but is now likely to have another run beforehand, to properly fit him for that 4800-metre event.
"We're not sure what we will do with him," Nelson said.
"He may even have a change of tact and have a hurdle race at Manawatu before the steeples at Hawke's Bay."
The Nelsons can take some consolation from the fact that both Arrest and Thorley went on to win the Hawke's Bay Steeples in the year they made their blunders at Te Rapa.
Arrest, with McGifford aboard, was a runaway winner of the 1981 Hawke's Bay Steeples while Lord rode Thorley to a three-quarter length victory over Count Your Silver in the 1990 running of the race.
Thorley also went on to win that year's Grand National Steeples in Christchurch.
No Hero was an 8 1/2 length winner in last year's Hawke's Bay Steeples and then ventured south to Riccarton where he won the Koral Steeples-Grand National double in devastating fashion.
He also won the 2003 Hawke's Bay Steeples and will be trying to become the first horse since the great Master Meruit to win the time-honoured Hastings three times. Master Meruit, regarded by many as one of the greatest jumpers produced in New Zealand, won his first Hawke's Bay Steeples in 1946 and then completed a double in the race in 1948 and 1949.
He lumped 11stone 10lb in each of his last two Hawke's Bay Steeplechase wins, which equates to 72.5kg under metrics. One off 50 wins Palmerston North jockey Jonathan Riddell was hoping to post a personal milestone aboard No Hero in Saturday's Waikato Steeples.
The talented rider is presently sitting on 49 career steeplechase wins and, like most people, felt confident of bringing up number 50 in Saturday's feature.
But it was not to be.
Riddell was still in front in the season's jumping riders' premiership after last weekend's racing but his lead is a very tenable one. He has posted eight wins over fences since August 1 last year, one more than Joanne Rathbone and Issac Lupton.
Rathbone had a chance to at least draw equal with rides in both the hurdle race and steeplechase at today's Counties meeting.
Two other jumps jockeys have posted personal milestones in the past week.
Palmerston North's Eddie Lamb had his 1000th jumping race ride when unplaced aboard Tiptonian in the hurdle race at Avondale last Wednesday while Wanganui's Rochelle Lockett owned, trained and rode Praise The Lord to win one of the country's prestige jumping races, Saturday's Waikato Hurdles.
Two quick wins Hastings plumber Greg Horton has dabbled in racehorse ownership without a lot of success in recent years but has fallen on his feet in the last five weeks.
Horton is a member of the Mixed Bag Syndicate that picked up a win with Connoisseur in a 1600-metre maiden highweight at New Plymouth on April 13. And the same syndicate also owns Blase, who made an auspicious race debut when winning the hurdle race at last Thursday's Egmont meeting at Hawera.
Horton says there are about 20 shareholders in the Mixed Bag Syndicate but he is the only Hawke's Bay-based member.
"It's a lot of fun and I love it," Horton said this week. Both Connoisseur and Blaze are trained at Hawera by Bob Baker and it was his secretary that organised the Mixed Bag Syndicate.
"I'm still meeting some of the people involved but its a great thrill to have two winners in such a short time," Horton said.
Blase was formerly trained by top jumps trainer Kevin Myers before being passed on to Baker.
The five-year-old Casual Lies gelding showed he has a big future in the jumping game when racing away to a 7 1/4 length win in the $8000 Dean Hunt Farm Services Hurdles (2800m) at Hawera last week.
Despite the horse having no race form, he only paid $7.90 for a win.
Connoisseur followed up his win at New Plymouth with another good run for fourth over 2100m at Otaki on May 6 and both he and Blase are expected to line up next at this Saturday's Marton meeting at Awapuni.
Blase will contest the $15,000 intermediate hurdle race over 2900m while Connoisseur is in the $30,000 special conditions maiden race over 2200m.
And Horton plans to be there to see both horses compete. HB owner has another Taradale racehorse owner Jay Sloan has had her share of good performers over the years and looks to have another one in Bernard Rex.
The Prized four-year-old looked a top middle distance horse in the making when he came with a sustained stayer's run to get up and win the $27,500 Jones Animal Food Distributors 1600 at last Saturday's Waikato meeting.
It was Bernard Rex's fourth win from 24 starts and his second at 1600m.
The four-year-old Prized gelding is raced by Sloan in partnership with her Taranaki-based cousin Bob Clement and trained for them by another cousin, Hawera-based Jim Clement.
The trio have been involved in racing for many years and raced the successful Glory Be (six wins) together a few years ago.
Bernard Rex is out of the Lord Ballina mare Wobinda Star, who was placed at 1600m and is a half-sister to Cuidado, who won eight races including the Queensland Guineas (1600m).
It is also the family of Silver Man, who won four races, and No Surrender, whose seven wins ranged from 1200m to 2400m.