Leap back into a first-up challenge

Leap To Fame ID23 Final Win. Photo by Dan Costello.

CHAMPION pacer Leap To Fame’s quest to resume from a break with a 12th successive win has been made tricky by the worst possible barrier at Albion Park on Saturday night.

It’s exactly the same scenario he faced at his most recent defeat when the five-year-old drew inside the back row (gate eight) and never saw daylight with a close fourth in the Be Good Johnny Sprint at Albion Park on November 4, last year.

Since then, Leap To Fame has stamped himself as the all-time great of the sport, with a clean sweep of the Brisbane Inter Dominion and dominant wins in the Hunter Cup and Miracle Mile.

The five-year-old became the first pacer since the mighty Preux Chevalier in 1985 to complete the Triple Crown – Inter Dominion final, Hunter Cup and Miracle Mile – in the same campaign.

Spliced in was another piece of history when he became the first pacer to win the $1mil Miracle Mile from a barrier draw wider than gate six (he started from seven).

Nobody knows Albion Park better than Dixon, and he concedes that barrier eight – inside the back row – makes things very tricky over the short 1660m distance.

“It takes a lot of things out of your own hands,” Dixon said. 

“It’s too short a race to drag right back and get away from the inside, so you’ve got to hope there is some room early to get off (the inside), or you need lots of luck late.

“We’re really happy with the horse. He trialled well last week, and the break has done him well, but it’s more than just about him from that draw. It’ll come down to what sort of luck we get.

“We got shuffled back in the Be Good Johnny and couldn’t get clear and there’s a real chance of that happening again.”

Leap To Fame’s won 24 of his 30 starts at Albion Park, but three of those defeats have been over 1660m.

Dixon opted to run Leap To Fame this week to sharpen him up for a very important first taste of standing-start racing in the Flashing Red at Albion Park a week later.

Leap To Fame will need to step away well from the stand next week to “qualify” for the $100,000 Group 2 Redcliffe Cup on June 29.

More importantly, both the Flashing Red and Redcliffe Cup will decide whether Dixon chases NZ’s iconic NZ Trotting Cup, which is a standing start at Addington in Christchurch on November 12.

Saturday night will start a busy winter campaign in his home state for Leap To Fame with the $200,000 Group 1 Sunshine Sprint and the $400,000 Group 1 Blacks A Fake his major targets.

Leap To Fame won last year’s Sunshine Sprint on his rise to greatness but was dramatically upstaged after copping a flat tyre by his older half-brother, Swayzee, in the Blacks A Fake.

Swayzee returned from a long spell with a stunning Menangle win last Saturday night and is building towards another Queensland raid.

The return clash between the siblings in the Blacks A Fake on July 27 promises to be one of the highlights of the harness year.

·       Adam Hamilton is a paid contributor writing on harness racing for News Corp.