Photo by Dan Costello
THIS could be the year of champion pacer Leap To Fame doing things in multiples.
Already entrenched as one of the best pacers this part of the world has seen, the six-year-old will spend much of 2025 trying to defend titles.
Fresh from winning a third successive Queensland Horse of the Year title last Sunday, Leap To Fame will continue the theme when he steps out at Newcastle on Friday night.
He is $1.30 favourite to make it back-to-back wins in the $100,000 Group 2 Newcastle Mile, which would gain him a golden ticket into the $1mil Group 1 Miracle Mile at Menangle on March 8.
Of course, Leap To Fame also won last year’s Miracle Mile, creating history as the first pacer to overcome a barrier draw wider than gate six. He started from seven in the eight-horse field.
While Grant Dixon’s megastar just missed successfully defending his Hunter Cup crown, going down in an epic and record-breaking clash with Swayzee, Leap To Fame went to Cranbourne a week later on February 8 and won its Cup for the second successive year.
Dixon is big on routine.
“It worked so well last year, going to Cranbourne after the Hunter Cup and then getting that two-week break into the Newcastle Mile, so we’ve done it again,” he said.
“It’s great we get to take him back home in between because he absolutely thrives here.
“He seems terrific at home and we’re looking forward to Newcastle. We’d love to win there and get that two-week break again into the Miracle Mile.”
Leap To Fame will have to overcome a stronger field than he faced at Newcastle last year, especially with trainer David Aiken opting to run his remarkable and in-form veteran Max Delight.
The nine-year-old followed a luckless and eye-catching Hunter Cup run from an awful barrier with a career-best Menangle win last Saturday night.
Max Delight bustled his way to the front for driver Will Rixon and scorched a 1min48.8sec mile, taking a second of his PB despite his age.
“You run out of things to say about him,” Aiken said. “I’ve been saying for a while now, I don’t think he’s ever raced better and his times say that.
“He couldn’t have gone better in the Hunter Cup and then he ran right up to that the other night.
“We knew we’d face Leap To Fame if we backed-up (at Newcastle), but we’ll give it a crack.”
The key will be whether Max Delight can buzz across to the front from gate six, with Leap To Fame directly inside him (gate five).
If the old boy leads, we could have a scenario like last week’s Albury Cup - when Captain Hammerhead led and upstaged Swayzee - where the champion of the race faces a bigger challenge than expected.
If Leap To Fame is beaten, he would have to back-up in one of the two qualifying sprints at Menangle a week later.
Dixon and wife, Trista, have openly said Leap To Fame’s win in last year’s Miracle Mile was their highlight of last year.
Beyond the Miracle Mile, plans are firmly in place for Leap To Fame’s first trip.
“We’re thinking he’ll just stay in Sydney and go across to NZ early for a lead-up race over there,” owner Kevin Seymour said.
His major target is the $NZ1mil Race by Betcha at Cambridge on April 4.
