{"id":330652,"date":"2026-03-15T10:11:24","date_gmt":"2026-03-15T10:11:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/330652\/"},"modified":"2026-03-15T10:11:24","modified_gmt":"2026-03-15T10:11:24","slug":"leap-to-fame-powers-to-second-miracle-mile-win","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/330652\/","title":{"rendered":"Leap To Fame powers to second Miracle Mile win"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/p>\n

By Adam Hamilton\u00a0<\/p>\n

Look out New Zealand, Larry is on his way back.<\/p>\n

Champion pacer Leap To Fame underlined why he is as great as any Australasian pacer of all time with a powerhouse second win in the $1m Miracle Mile at Menangle last night.<\/p>\n

It was his third go at the race after winning in 2024 and running a brave and close second to Don Hugo last year.<\/p>\n

Now he\u2019s headed to Cambridge next month to defend the $1m The Race crown he won with one of the greatest performances of his career last year.<\/p>\n

He\u2019s even better now than then.<\/p>\n

And he\u2019s certainly racing better than when second to Kingman in last November\u2019s NZ Cup.<\/p>\n

Despite sitting outside his arch-rival and older half-brother Swayzee, Leap To Fame ran past him and staved off a booming challenge from rising star The Janitor to win by a half-neck in a 1min49sec mile. Defending champion Don Hugo was third.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou run out of things to say about him,\u201d owner Kevin Seymour said. \u201cThey say he\u2019s not a miler and look what he\u2019s done here \u2026 again.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s a champion in every sense of the word and he\u2019s been doing it for four years now.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Co-trainer Trista Dixon said Leap To Fame would return to their Tambourine stables outside Brisbane now to freshen-up before another road trip back to Sydney to get a flight to Auckland.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt this stage the flight will be Easter Saturday or Sunday,\u201d she said. \u201cWe\u2019re keen to pretty much copy what we did with him last year.\u201d<\/p>\n

Although thrilled with the win, Dixon said it was as much a relief as anything.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re trying to enjoy the moments because they\u2019re not going to last forever,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s so much pressure and expectation every time he races. You\u2019re just relieved when he wins.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Janitor\u2019s driver Pete McMullen thought he was going to beat Leap To Fame halfway down the straight.<\/p>\n

\u201cYep, when he really let down, I thought I had him, but he just dug in again and wouldn\u2019t let us pass him,\u201d he said. \u201cOur guy was still a huge run after being shoved wide on the home bend. We\u2019d have finished closer for sure.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Janitor will head to Cambridge, too.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe and Gus will go across a bit earlier and could run at Cambridge the week before the big races,\u201d trainer Chantal Turpin said.<\/p>\n

But it was Leap To Fame\u2019s night and his 15th Group 1 win, moving him to within one of the Australasian record of 16 shared by Lazarus and Westburn Grant.<\/p>\n

Leap To Fame\u2019s prize money soared to $5,883,234.<\/p>\n

Incredibly, from 85 starts he has won 66 times and only finished worse than second on five occasions. They were three thirds and two fourths.<\/p>\n

The hard luck story of the Miracle Mile was the star former Kiwi mare Captains Mistress who was badly held-up three back on the pegs.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m not saying she\u2019d have beaten the winner, but she\u2019d have been right in the finish with any luck at all,\u201d driver Jye Coney said.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Somehow Keayang Zahara seems to be getting better.<\/p>\n

The brilliance and sheer arrogance of last night\u2019s win in the $100,000 Group 1 Hammerhead Mile at Menangle was evidence of that.<\/p>\n

More records tumbled.<\/p>\n

The win was her 15th at Group 1 level, which made her equal with the former great Kiwi gelding Lyell Creek for the most Group 1 wins by an Australasian trotter.<\/p>\n

And Keayang Zahara\u2019s scorching 1min51.5sec mile last night \u2013 seemingly with plenty in the tank \u2013 equalled Maori Time\u2019s 2018 Australasian mile record by a trotter.<\/p>\n

It was her 27th win from just 28 starts.<\/p>\n

Now Team Lee set their sights on taking her back to NZ for the $530,000 Trot Slot at Cambridge on April 10.<\/p>\n

Her brilliant stablemate Jilliby Ballerini chased Keayang Zahara home for second again last night.<\/p>\n

They are both Cambridge-bound.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019d like to give them another run before they go and the Terang (Trotters\u2019) Cup looks the only real option,\u201d co-trainer Paddy Lee said.<\/p>\n

It would mean they both switch to standing start racing and come off 30m handicaps.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ll either go there or look to get them and maybe a couple of others of ours together for a private workout between races that night.\u201d Lee said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe can\u2019t wait to get back to NZ. We took her 18 months ago and we were given the greatest reception.\u201d<\/p>\n

Queensland star Gus, who won the big NZ Cup Week Group 1 trotting double, was no match for Keayang Zahara last night.<\/p>\n

But there was still plenty to like about his run after making a blistering move around the field from last at the 800m.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s just so hard with her up front and giving away that sort of start, but he ran a terrific race,\u201d driver Pete McMullen said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"By Adam Hamilton\u00a0 Look out New Zealand, Larry is on his way back. Champion pacer Leap To Fame…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":58095,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[42,43,40,38,41,39],"class_list":["post-330652","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/330652","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=330652"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/330652\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/58095"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=330652"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=330652"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=330652"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}