Hardy's Hero

That said, there are green shoots in the record. In the lower-grade races where Hardy's Hero typically runs, it has won once from three attempts, a win rate of 33 percent that suggests it belongs at that level. The horse is also a regular placer: six places from eleven races means it hits the frame more often than not. Its recent form, read backwards from the latest outing yesterday, tells a more encouraging story than the bare facts suggest. The sequence of 12-7-6-2-2-3 shows two second-place finishes and a third not long ago — narrow misses rather than hammerings, which hints that the horse still has something to offer. At this level of racing, that consistency has value. Hardy's Hero is clearly a horse that earns its keep, and with a trainer of Haggas's calibre still saddling it after more than a year without a win, there is confidence enough in the yard that a breakthrough is still possible.