By Adam Hamilton
The path to the IRT New Zealand Trotting Cup starts on Saturday night for champion Aussie pacer Leap To Fame.
The amazing six-year-old returns from a break to face just five rivals in a 2138m free-for-all at Albion Park.
It will springboard his quest to add another three Group 1 wins for the remainder of this season to his already bulging CV.
The biggest of them is the $1 million IRT NZ Trotting Cup at Addington on November 11.
Before then, he will head to Melton to chase the one huge traditional open-class race to elude him so far in Australia, the $250,000 Group 1 Victoria Cup on October 18. It’s the race they call the Cox Plate of harness racing.
Leap To Fame’s 2025 Group 1 hunt will finish in his own backyard with the $250,000 Group 1 Blacks A Fake – a race he won last year – in its new timeslot on December 6 at Albion Park.
He already shares the Australian record with 12 Group wins (with Lombo Pocket Watch and Smoken Up) and is chasing Lazarus’ Australasian record of 15.
Leap To Fame, who hasn’t raced since winning his second Brisbane Inter Dominion final on July 19, sharpened-up for his return to a remarkable 140m trial win – albeit against trotters – from a standing start at Albion Park last Thursday.
The trial was as much to gain standing-start practice ahead of the NZ Cup, which is a stand. He won’t get the chance to race from a standing start before it.
When he steps out on Saturday night, Leap To Fame will be chasing his 23rd successive win on the Albion Park track. His last defeat there was a luckless fourth way back on November 4, 2023.
His last start Inter Dominion win made Leap To Fame the richest all-time pacer in Australasia with $A4,630,884, overtaking Blacks A Fake’s $A4,575,438.
Trainer-driver Grant Dixon said the champ was primed for his return.
“He didn’t have that long out, only a few weeks after the Inter Dominion and he seems great,” he said.
“People ask me if he’s still getting better with the big past few months he’s had. I’d say he’s as good as ever.
“It’ll be good to get this run into him, which will be the only run he has before the Victoria Cup.”
Dixon didn’t buy into the Victoria Cup hoodoo theory given Leap To Fame had tried to win the race and had to settle for a brave and close third in 2023 and then being scratched with a throat infection just days before the race last year.
“He’s won so many other big races, I don’t worry about the ones he didn’t win or that might have got away. He’s done an incredible job,” he said.
Dixon confirmed the change of plans to have Leap To Fame get a flight from Melbourne to Auckland after the Victoria Cup, rather than return home to his Tambourine base outside Brisbane before crossing the ditch.
“It’ll save him a flight and a long road trip to Sydney, so it makes sense,” he said.
