Racing: Riddell bets on Hero's run today

No Hero is such a great jumper that top jumps jockey Jonathan Riddell is willing to tempt fate with him.

No Hero is a hot favourite to win the $40,000 Hawke's Bay Steeplechase at Hastings today and Riddell expects nothing less than victory.

"He'll win," Riddell said. "He's the best horse we have seen in this country for a long time."

It is not the first time Riddell has expressed such sentiments but he could have been excused for being a little more circumspect with his pre-race comments on this occasion.

Riddell was in a similar frame of mind before the $50,000 Waikato Steeplechase at Te Rapa on May 20 when No Hero had top weight of 68.5kg.

He said then: "I don't see the weight as a problem and probably the only thing that can beat him is if I fall off - and that can happen."

Happen it did. No Hero fell at the first fence, much to the dismay of punters who made him a $1.50 hotpot.

It ended an unbeaten sequence of steeplechase wins which had reached eight over a period of three years.

No Hero has raced twice since the Waikato Steeples and has run well on both occasions.

The first was in a jumpers' flat race when he was second over 3100m at Woodville on June 1.

He then stepped out in a hurdle race at Wanganui last Thursday and was third to Yourtheman.

No Hero was beaten by more than eight lengths, but Riddell said that margin was not a true reflection of the horse's effort.

"He probably could have finished a little bit closer but I got a held up a bit at the 1000 [metres]," Riddell said.

No Hero won the 2003 and last year's Hawke's Bay Steeplechases and will be trying to become the second horse to win the race three times. Master Meruit won in 1946, 1948 and 1949.

Toughest opposition for No Hero, who yesterday was at $1.70 on the New Zealand TAB's fixed-odds market, could well come from the Waikato stable of Ann Browne.

Browne's best chance is Primo Canera, winner of the $30,000 McGregor Grant Steeplechase (4900m) at Ellerslie on June 5.

- NZPA