![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Leap-To-Fame-blog-connections-post-The-Race-2026__ResizedImageWzYwMCwzNDdd.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
By Adam Hamilton\u00a0<\/p>\n
The two rock stars of Cambridge’s Night of Champions look set to return for New Zealand Cup week.<\/p>\n
Leap To Fame and Keayang Zahara both underlined their superstar status with dominating wins in last night’s two big slot races, $1m The Race by Sport Nation and the $530,000 TAB Trot.<\/p>\n
After months of uncertainty, Leap To Fame\u2019s owner Kevin Seymour essentially guaranteed the champion pacer would race on for a second tilt at the iconic NZ Cup at Addington Raceway in November.<\/p>\n
Until last night, he had repeatedly said no decision would be made until after the Brisbane Inter Dominion in July.<\/p>\n
\u201cHow can we think about retiring him when he\u2019s racing better than ever?\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cSomehow he seems to be getting better with age. That\u2019s the best win of his career so far.<\/p>\n
\u201cSeriously, Kay (Seymour, wife) and I have long wanted to win a NZ Cup. We tried with him when he ran second last year, so we\u2019d love to come back again.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf he wasn\u2019t the GOAT before tonight, then surely he is now.\u201d<\/p>\n
Leap To Fame will return home for a freshen-up ahead of chasing a third Inter Dominion at Albion Park in July.<\/p>\n
Even his conservative trainer-driver Grant Dixon said Leap To Fame had never gone better than last night\u2019s successful Race by Sport Nation defence.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe beat a better field that last year, did as much work and won a lot easier. You\u2019d have to say it\u2019s his best,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s certainly going at least as well as ever. He\u2019s travelling well and thriving on the racing.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Zeayang-Zahara-blog-TAB-Trot-finish-2026-Lee__ResizedImageWzYwMCwzNDdd.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
In a major shock, Keayang Zahara\u2019s co-trainer Paddy Lee revealed she will likely bypass the Brisbane Inter Dominion.<\/p>\n
It means Addington\u2019s Group 1 double in Cup Week \u2013 the Dominion Trot and NZ Trotting Free-For-All \u2013 become major targets.<\/p>\n
Lee dropped the bombshell Inter Dominion news just moments after Keayang Zahara\u2019s effortless win in last night\u2019s $530,000 TAB Trot at Cambridge.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019d say she\u2019ll go to the Sydney race ($100,000 Macarthur Mile on May 2) and then out for a spell,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe\u2019s done a terrific job to start the year and there are some great races for her at the end of the year.\u201d<\/p>\n
Keayang Zahara stretched her record to 28 wins (and a second) from 29 starts when she cruised to an all-the-win last night.<\/p>\n
In other post-race news, Lee revealed Keayang Zahara almost didn\u2019t make the trip.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe hadn\u2019t been happy with her after Sydney. She\u2019d been tying up,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cMum (Marg Lee) wasn\u2019t keen to take her (to NZ), but we bought some time and then used the Terang trial (last week) as the decider.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"11 April 2026 , Night of Champions By Adam Hamilton\u00a0 The two rock stars of Cambridge’s Night of…\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":{"0":"post-374381","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-headlines","9":"tag-news","10":"tag-top-news","11":"tag-top-stories","12":"tag-topnews","13":"tag-topstories"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/374381","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=374381"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/374381\/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=374381"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=374381"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=374381"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}