Photo by Stuart McCormick
DEFENDING champion Leap To Fame will headline a crack field for next Saturday night's $100,000 Group 1 Cranbourne Cup.
His rivals will include two of the three Kiwi stars from last night's Hunter Cup with Tact McLeod and Dont Stop Dreaming both coming their runs well.
In contrast, Auckland Cup winner Republican Party "really felt the run" and will head home instead.
Trainer Scott Ewen said local hero Bulletproof Boy, who bumped a leg and was scratched from the Hunter Cup, should be fine for Cranbourne.
Leap To Fame's trainer-driver Grant Dixon said: "He went great, you couldn't ask for any more. He's bounced through it really well, as he usually does, so we'll head to Cranbourne.
"It worked ideally last year when we went to Cranbourne and then Newcastle (February 21) before the Miracle Mile, so we'll do it again."
Caretaker trainer and driver Anthony Butt was thrilled with Tact McLeod’s close fourth, beaten about a metre, in the Hunter Cup.
“He went super. They’re bloody great horses to try and get past,” he said.
“He seems to have pulled-up great so we’ll more than likely go to Cranbourne.”
Dont Stop Dreaming only ran seventh in the Hunter Cup, but he smashed the clock for his last 1000m after making ground a mile back and out very wide for the last 400m to be beaten just 7.1 metres.
“It was a fantastic run, both he and Oscar (Bonavena) will be good to go to Cranbourne,” he said.
Republican Party's trainer Cran Dalgety said: “It’s really the first time in his career he’s pulled-up a big shagged, as though he really knew he had a run.
"I think he’d be five per cent down on his best, but rather and improving if we backed him up so we’ll get him home instead.
“He’s come a long way in the past six months or so and we’ll focus on getting him primed for the Race by Betcha now.”
Republican Party charged home from three pegs to a head and half-neck behind the two best pacers in this part of the world.
“Carter felt he could’ve gotten even closer, but hey I say a close third in a Hunter Cup behind those two is a win in itself and should be celebrated,” Dalgety said.
“He’s always been five or 10 per cent below the big guns, but showed he’d improved and was up with the best Kiwis and now he’s run that well, albeit after being on the marker pegs, behind the best in Australasia.”
Longer term, Dalgety said a return to Australia for the enhanced Brisbane Inter Dominion in July was a strong possibility.
“It’s an attractive option now it’s in July, down to just two rounds of heats and the prize money has gone up,” he said.
“It’s something we’ll look a lot more seriously at after the Cambridge race.”
Hunter Cup winner Swayzee heads back to Jason Grimson's stables to prepare for the fourth of five legs in the NSW Carnival of Cups at Albury on Friday week.
