Leap to Fame - Hunter Cup Presentation Photo by Stuart McCormick
FRESH from his greatest win, champion pacer Leap To Fame will delight fans by racing again at Albion Park over the next two Saturday nights.
Leap To Fame turned a long-awaited third clash with arch-rival and older sibling Swayzee into a display of equine supremacy in last Saturday night’s Mr Feelgood Open at Albion Park.
In contrast to last year’s Blacks A Fake when Leap To Fame found the task of sitting outside Swayzee too much, albeit after copping a flat tyre, he did it with ease this time to take a 2-1 lead.
Leap To Fame had Swayzee beaten before the home bend and raced clear to win by 8.5m, seemingly with trainer-driver Grant Dixon just nursing him to the line.
“He did it really well. He’s as good as we’ve ever had him,” trainer-driver Grant Dixon said.
The five-year-old smashed his own track record with the 1min51sec flat mile rate taking 0.7sec off his previous mark for 2138m. He now holds three of the five current track records at Albion Park.
Dixon confirmed Leap To Fame would back up in Saturday night’s $200,000 Group 1 Sunshine Sprint – a race he won last year – and the $400,000 Group 1 Blacks A Fake a week later.
“He thrives on backing up; he actually loves the racing and the hard runs seem to bring him on rather than take anything out of him,” Dixon said.
The Blacks A Fake has long been billed as the ultimate rematch, but Leap To Fame now dominates pre-post betting at $1.40. He is also $1.35 to win the Sunshine Sprint.
While Leap To Fame beat Swayzee easily last Saturday night, Dixon is expecting a much harder contest in the Blacks A Fake.
“Swayzee hasn’t had much racing, so I’m sure he’ll improve on that and be better in two weeks,” he said. “You've also got to take into account the early work he did, he really had to go hard to hold the lead and that would’ve taken a bit out of him.”
Leap To Fame’s latest win was his 15th from his past 16 starts and his 39th from just 50 lifetime starts.
The five-year-old is eighth on the all-time Australasian prizemoney list with $2,857,485 and is a realistic chance of taking top spot from fellow Queenslander Blacks A Fake ($4,575,438) over the next 12 months.
Beyond the next two weeks, Leap To Fame’s major targets for the rest of 2024 include the $300,000 Group 1 Victoria Cup (Melton, October 12), $NZ1mil Group 1 NZ Cup (Addington, November 12) and the $500,000 Group 1 Sydney Inter Dominion final (Menangle, December 14).
The other highlight on Saturday night will be the second clash of Australia’s two top mares, Ladies In Red and Aardies Express, in the $150,000 Group 1 Golden Girl.
Aardies Express upstaged Ladies In Red at their only meeting in the Group 1 Queen Elizabeth II Mile at Menangle on May 4.
Both mares capped their preparations with wins last Saturday night, Ladies In Red at Melton and Aardies Express at Albion Park.
· Adam Hamilton is a paid contributor writing on harness racing for News Corp.
