Leap To Fame - Cranbourne Gold Cup Photo by Stuart McCormick
CONQUERING Victoria is just the start of the travelling rampage for Queensland pacing sensation Leap To Fame.
Grant Dixon's five-year-old, who may well be as good as any pacer in the world right now, made it two wins from as many starts in this Victoria trip when he romped away with last night's $100,000 Group 2 Cranbourne Cup.
As has become customary, Leap To Fame obliterated the track record with a 1min55.6sec mile rate for the long 2550m trip around an undulating track not renowned for its speed.
Leap To Fame won by almost 10m to take his career record to 43 starts for 33 wins, six seconds, two thirds and $2,160,957 in prize money.
He now flies back home to Dixon's Tambourine stables, but only for a brief visit, before an eight-hour road trip to NSW for the $100,000 Group 2 Newcastle Mile on February 23.
Victory will guarantee his spot in one of the world's great sprint races, the $1mil Miracle Mile at Menangle on
March 9.
Leap To Fame is well on his way to greatness, but winning the Miracle Mile would fast-track that.
He is trying to become the first pacer in history to win Australian harness racing's "triple crown" in the same campaign, having already bagged the Inter Dominion pacing final and the Hunter Cup.
But that's just the first stage of what will be a monstrous 2024.
Beyond the Miracle Mile, Dixon will take Leap To Fame outside Australia for the first time to tackle the $NZ1mil Race By Grins at Cambridge in NZ on April 12.
Then, he will finally get to have a stint back home to chase riches in races like the Sunshine Sprint and Blacks A Fake in July at Albion Park.
"He's in for a busy time with the big races and travel that's required, but he's thriving on the racing," Dixon said.
Leap To Fame's Cranbourne win was his fourth victory in as many weeks.
"I was super happy with him again tonight. There was a strong breeze out there. I had to give him a bit of a tap in the last bit to keep his mind on the job, but he ran away with it," Dixon said.
"He came through it well, and it's good we get to fly him back home where he can get back into his routine before we travel again to Newcastle."
"With Newcastle being 15 days before the Miracle Mile, he can come again after that and we'll head back to Sydney as close as we can to the Mile."
"Providing he's well after the Miracle Mile, he'll go to Cambridge. We haven't quite worked out what he'll do in those five weeks between the Mile and the NZ race."
Don't Stop Dreaming, the young Kiwi star who gave Leap To Fame a bit of a scare in the Hunter Cup is headed towards a rematch.
Mark and Nathan Purdon's four-year-old grabbed favouritism for Australia's top four-year-old race, the Group 1 Chariots Of Fire (March 2), when he blitzed his rivals in the Hondo Grattan at Menangle last night.
A win in the Chariots would get Don't Stop Dreaming a ticket to take on Leap To Fame in the Miracle Mile.
If not, they are on a path to meet again in the Race By Grins.
Stand-in driver Jack Callaghan was buzzing after winning aboard Don't Stop Dreaming.
"He's such a professional dude with an electric turn of foot," he said. "I'm really honoured to be able to drive him."
· Adam Hamilton is a paid contributor writing on harness racing for News Corp.
