By MIKE DILLON
So can Smart Hunter and Michelle Hopkins set records by completing the TV Guide-$100,000 Mercedes Great Northern Steeplechase double today?
If you doubt it, don't do so because Smart Hunter has had only two steeplechases and has yet to win one.
Hopkins says that is the least of her
worries.
She is more concerned about how much Saturday's TV Guide Hurdles win may have taken out of the rugged jumper.
"I know his race record says he's a novice 'chaser, but what you have to remember is he has been jumping the big fences at home for years.
"Saturday's race is the key. He won it very easily in the end and pulled up very bright.
"I went down to the horsebox area after the race and there he was knocking everyone over.
"But even then you don't really know how how he's going to come through the race.
"You won't know until you get down to the nitty gritty of the end of a tough 6400m tomorrow."
The grit Smart Hunter shows at the end of his races makes him an ideal type to step up from the shorter hurdle races to a major steeplechase.
The stamina comeback to win easily after being headed on the home turn on Saturday was remarkable.
"It's a hard ask what we're setting him, but when the Browne horses go to Christchurch for the big meeting they're often racing three times in a week, which includes races like the Grand National Hurdles, so this is no tougher."
Traditionally there have been two or three horses who stand out in the Mercedes Great Northern, but this year there is barely a runner who cannot win.
The evenness of the field is extreme.
Hopkins has no idea of her likely race tactics.
"I'll wait until I have a word with Mrs Browne.
"To be honest he's not a horse you can do a lot with because he likes to make his own rules.
"There is no point in fighting him in a race like that. Where he wants to go is almost certainly where he will be."
