Leap To Fame. Photo by Dan Costello
THE 2024 Australian Grand Circuit ended very differently to how it started.
Queensland champ, Leap To Fame, picked up where he left off late last year by winning the first two legs of 2024 – the Hunter Cup and Miracle Mile.
He then added the fourth leg, the Blacks A Fake, before a throat infection forced him out of the last two – the Victoria Cup and Inter Dominion.
Mighty stayer Swayzee took advantage of Leap To Fame’s absence to crush his rivals in the fifth leg, the Victoria Cup.
Then came some fresh blood with Luke McCarthy’s young star, Don Hugo, winning at his first try at Grand Circuit racing in last Saturday night’s Inter Dominion pacing final at Menangle.
Remarkably, he didn’t even make the Blacks A Fake field just five months earlier in Queensland, having to settle for victory in the consolation.
Of course, Don Hugo went on to win the world’s richest harness race, the $2.1mil TAB Eureka at Menangle on September 7. That spring-boarded his Inter Dominion assault in series missing Leap To Fame and Swayzee.
It also paved the way for McCarthy to win his first Inter Dominion pacing final at his 11th attempt as a driver.
He’s now won “the lot” … Inter Dominion, Miracle Mile, Hunter Cup and Victoria Cups, Plus, of course, both TAB Eureka’s run so far.
Don Hugo’s 100 points for winning the Inter Dominion gave him a share of fifth place on the 2024 Grand Circuit table, which he shared with old warhorse Max Delight, who earned his 100 points across three races, including a third to Don Hugo last Saturday.
Despite missing those last two legs, Leap To Fame successfully defended his Grand Circuit crown.
He will try to do what King Of Swing did in 2020, ’21 and ’22 and complete a hat trick in 2025.
Excitingly, next year’s Grand Circuit will start in just six weeks at Melton with the Hunter Cup.
And there’s every chance that will bring together Don Hugo, Leap To Fame and Swayzee.
WA star Minstrel earned 60 points for his monstrous second to Don Hugo in the Inter Dominion. It gave him 160 points for the season and a share of second spot on the table with Swayzee.
Minstrel won’t go to the Hunter Cup. Instead, he will return home for a freshen-up ahead of the Nullarbor/Fremantle Cup double at Gloucester Park in April.
That means a rematch with WA’s boom pacer, Mister Smartee, winner of last Friday night’s Group 1 Golden Nugget.
Minstrel beat Mister Smartee when they clashed in the Group 1 WA Pacing Cup last month.
