Leap To Fame - Rising Sun Win Photo by Dan Costello
QUEENSLAND pacing sensation Leap To Fame is a victim of his own success.
Over the past year, just 8.1 metres has separated him from perfection. He’s raced 11 times for nine wins and seconds – both the best runs in the race since thrashing his rivals in the Victoria Derby final at Melton on October 8, last year.
Unless you are Black Caviar or Winx for much of her career, horses don’t win every start.
By its nature, the barrier draw factor, smaller tracks and the style of racing make it much harder to keep winning in harness racing.
But Leap To Fame looked so good, winning eight races in succession, starting with that Victoria Derby, he earned comparisons with the all-time greats of the sport.
There was almost an expectation he would defy any barrier draw and overcome any run to keep stretching that picket fence. Then came defeat.
In front of his home crowd at Albion Park, Leap To Fame finished second to Swayzee at his first start on the Grand Circuit in the Group 1 Blacks A Fake on July 22.
But there were excuses. Leap To Fame copped a flat tyre in the last lap and dragged a seized sulky wheel in the home straight and was still only beaten 6.4m in blistering time.
The moment for redemption came in the world’s richest race, the $2.1mil TAB Eureka at Menangle on September 2.
The punters rallied and sent Leap To Fame out a $1.70 favourite but, after enduring the hardest run outside the leader again and a drive his trainer Grant Dixon said he “would like to do a bit differently”, he ran second again.
It’s harsh, especially on a four-year-old in his first year in the big league, but this Victoria Cup is a huge moment for Leap To Fame.
If he’s as good as many think, he needs to find a way to win.
As amazing as he has looked at times, Leap To Fame lacks the most important weapon in harness racing – gate speed.
Tomorrow night at Melton, he’s got what he didn’t have in the Blacks A Fake or TAB Eureka – a draw Dixon hoped for. He will start from barrier four and is the $2 favourite.
Dixon thinks he will have some gate speed when asked and learn to show more in time, but it could be the difference between him winning or losing this Victoria Cup.
If Leap To Fame can get across defending champion Rock N Roll Doo at the start and hold out Catch On Wave on his outside, he will almost certainly find the lead and that would effectively be game over.
If not, he may be in the hardest spot to win a harness race – the same spot he was in those defeats in the Blacks A Fake and TAB Eureka – outside the leader.
He can win sitting outside the leader, but the task just becomes so much harder, especially against the strongest Victoria Cup field in the past 20 years.
The greats find a way, and this is Leap To Fame’s chance to show he’s a great, even at this early stage of his career.
· Adam Hamilton is a paid contributor writing on harness racing for News Corp.
