By Adam Hamilton
Cambridge is proving the alternate hunting ground for the Australian Horse of the Year winners.
In 2024 the great trotter Just Believe won the TAB Trot at Cambridge on his way to winning the Australian Trotter of the Year for a second time.
Last year the bar was raised again.
Leap To Fame and Arcee Phoenix went to Cambridge and brilliantly won the Race by betcha and TAB Trot respectively.
Today they were crowned the Australian Horse of the Year (Leap To Fame) and Australian Trotter of the Year (Arcee Phoenix).
Arcee Phoenix won the TAB Trot at Cambridge as well as the 2025 Inter Dominion Final, going past $1m in earnings in the process.
Leap To Fame won the title for a record-equalling third time.
It capped another huge year for the Grant Dixon-trained pacer, who also became the first pacer in this part of the world to top $5 million in prize money and won a third Australian Grand Circuit champion title.
Leap To Fame joined former champions King Of Swing (2020, 21 and 22), Im Themightyquinn (2011, 12 and 13), Blacks A Fake (2007, 08 and 2010), Our Sir Vancelot (1997, 98 and 99) and Westburn Grant (1989, 91 and 92) as the only three-time Horse of the Year winners.
“It’s a tremendous honour and measure of his greatness,” owner Kevin Seymour said. “As I’ve said before, he is the horse Kay (Seymour) and dreamed of getting after more than 50 years in the game.
“He’s won so many of the biggest races and broken record-after-record along the way, this is another huge thing on his CV when you look at the calibre of horses he joins.”
Last season was Leap To Fame’s richest so far with earnings of $1,758,424 from 22 starts, 16 wins, five seconds and a third.
His biggest win came with his second Inter Dominion crown at Albion Park on July 19.
Leap To Fame also travelled to NZ for the first time and scored one of the best and most dominant wins of his career in the $NZ1 million Race by betcha at Cambridge last April.
He returned to NZ for a fantastic second in the iconic NZ Cup on November 11 and won the Group 1 NZ free-for-all three days later.
Leap To Fame also ran typically brave placings in last season’s Hunter Cup, Miracle Mile, Victoria Cup and Blacks A Fake.
Incredibly, he has missed a place just twice in his 83-starts career and finished fourth both times.
Now a seven-year-old, Leap To Fame has started this season superbly with six starts netting four wins, including the Kilmore and Cranbourne Cups at Group 1 level, and two placings. His last start was a close second to older half-brother Swayzee in the Hunter Cup on February 14.
His next major target is a trip to Cambridge in April to defend his Race title, then comes a tilt at a third Inter Dominion crown at Albion Park in July.
Leap To Fame deeds headlined another Australian training premiership-winning season for Grant Dixon. Amazingly, it was Dixon’s 10th national title.