Changing room chat: America hails unlikely Hero

AMERICANS love an underdog and they celebrated an equine rags to riches tale at the weekend when Hero Of Order, a 109-1 rank outsider, won Sunday’s $1 million Louisiana Derby in New Orleans.

Hero Of Order had won just one of his previous 13 starts, but took the giant prize pot – more than ten times his previous earnings. There was a sting in the tail, however. Hero Of Order is ineligible for the Kentucky Derby, because connections – no doubt fearing he wouldn’t be good enough – failed to nominate him for the Triple Crown series.