Leap To Fame Photo by Dan Costello
QUEENSLAND has such a rich racing history and champion pacer Leap To Fame has burst his way into a spot alongside the all-time greats.
From Bernborough in 1940s and the "Great Grey" Gunsynd in the '70s, and on to the equine heroes Vo Rogue and Strawberry Road in the 1980s and early '90s.
In more recent times, sprinting stars Falvelon and Buffering have proudly and stunningly flown the Queensland flag.
In harness racing, Blacks A Fake, the only four-time Inter Dominion winner and richest Australasian pacer of all time stands alone as by far the Sunshine State's greatest pacer.
Fresh from his historic win in last Saturday night's $1mil Miracle Mile at Menangle, Leap To Fame has gone from potentially to absolutely in the conversation with all of those before him.
Still, just an early five-year-old, Leap To Fame already boasts a winning strike rate better than all those equine heroes I've mentioned before him, with 35 wins from just 45 starts. Closest was Bernborough's 26 wins from 37 starts.
Blacks A Fake raced for almost eight years and had 105 starts – so often in the biggest races - for a staggering 72 wins.
While Blacks A Fake "owned" the Inter Dominion and won the 2008 Hunter Cup, he tried unsuccessfully four times to win the Miracle Mile and had to be content with two second placings.
Leap To Fame, at his first attempt, became the third Queensland-trained pacer to win the Miracle Mile in its 57-year history. Lucky Creed (1970) and Be Good Johnny (2005 &' 06) are the others.
"It's my first Miracle Mile win in over 50 years in the sport, and it's the one big race I hadn't won," owner Kevin Seymour said.
"To do and complete the 'Triple Crown' is the icing on the cake."
That Triple Crown is the Inter Dominion pacing final, Hunter Cup and Miracle Mile. Leap To Fame became only the second horse – and the first since the great Preux Chevalier in 1985 to win all three in the one campaign.
In doing so, he became the first pacer to win the Miracle Mile from a barrier wider than six. He started from gate seven.
"And everyone said he wasn't a miler (sprinter) and would struggle to win a Miracle Mile, but he did with a career-best time and performance," Seymour said.
"Most would tell you I'm a hard judge when it comes to horses, and I've had some really good ones. I'd reserved my comments on him being a champion, but the other night he proved it by sitting in the 'death' (outside the leader) and running those amazing times. I couldn't believe he could do that."
"He deserves his place in the conversation with the greatest now. Owners might not be the best, or at least unbiased judges, but I can't see anything on the horizon to take the mantle off him."
It was 4.30 am Saturday in upstate New York when former premier NSW trainer and now US-based Shane Tritton's alarm went off.
"I wasn't going to miss seeing Leap To Fame in the Miracle Mile," said Tritton, who gets to see the world's best pacers race in the flesh in the US. "I've been saying for a year he's potentially an all-time great and could be the best horse in the world, but I was worried about his wide draw, but even he went to a new level."
"There's not another horse in the world who could've done that. In this generation, he's become so dominant nothing is going to beat him unless something goes wrong."
"As to where he sits with the greats (all-time in Australia), Blacks A Fake and Im Themightyquinn are the two who benchmark champions I raced against, and Leap To Fame is without a doubt in that league now … and he's only at the start of his (open-aged) career with so much to come."
Former leviathan bookmaker, form student and media man Bill Hutchison, who now calls the Gold Coast home, is as well-placed as any harness expert to assess where Leap To Fame sits with the harness racing's greats.
"Im Themightyquinn was incredible, and Blacks A Fake was unbelievable, and now we've got this bloke who is the absolute real deal. He's got gears!" he said.
"Is he the best ever? Put it this way, I can't think of one better."
Leading thoroughbred racing scribe Ben Dorries added something equally as important about Leap To Fame.
"I reckon the biggest thing about him is that he transcends his own sport."
"People know Leap To Fame who may never have watched a harness race," he said.
· Adam Hamilton is a paid contributor writing on harness racing for News Corp.
