THE timing of champion pacer Leap To Fame return to racing makes for a Queensland Day racing extravaganza on Saturday.
Racing Queensland has astutely slated Leap To Fame’s race as the fourth event, to be run at 6.45pm Saturday at Albion Park.
That’s just a couple of hours after the last of nine races at the huge Queensland Oaks meeting at Eagle Farm and only a 10 minute drive for those passionate racing fans who want to take in both.
For all the talent on show at Eagle Farm, Leap To Fame is by far the greatest horse racing in Queensland, or Australia for that matter, on Saturday.
Most say he is Australasia's greatest pacer of all time.
He boasts 68 wins from 87 starts and has obliterated the all-time Australasian harness racing prize money record with $6,315, 359. The next best is another Queensland great, Blacks A Fake, with $4,575,438.
Leap To Fame is a $1.04 favourite to overcome the outside draw and add to his amazing Albion Park record with a first-up win on Saturday night.
The Grant Dixon-trained seven-year-old has raced 25 of his past 26 starts at Albion Park, dating back to November 4, 2023.
This race could also be the last chance for racing fans to watch Leap To Fame race before he starts his quest for a third Inter Dominion title at Albion Park on July 4.
Only three other pacers have won the iconic race three times or more. Blacks A Fake won it four times, along with Im Themightyquinn and Our Sir Vancelot three times.
“Ideally we could get another run into him after this, but there may not be a suitable race,” trainer-driver Grant Dixon said. “We have to settle for this week’s race and a trial closer to the first round of heats.”
Dixon said he was amazed how well Leap To Fame had freshened up since returning from his latest successful NZ raid where he won the $NZ1 million Race by Sport Nation for a second time on April 10.
“He’s just coming through his race so well and holding his condition better than ever,” he said. “He had two weeks off after NZ and that’s all he needed to freshen right up.”
Excitingly, if Leap To Fame performs well during the Inter Dominion next month, he will continue to race on rather than be retired to stud duties.
“That’s the plan if he’s as well then as he is now,” owner Kevin Seymour said. “The NZ Cup is such an iconic race and one of very few big races to have eluded us so far. We’d love to go back and have another crack at that (in November).”
Leap To Fame ran a brave second to fellow Aussie pacer Kingman in last year’s NZ Cup.
