By Adam Hamilton\u00a0<\/p>\n
Champion pacer Leap To Fame picked up where he left off with an easy win at Albion Park in Brisbane last night.<\/p>\n
It was the seven-year-old\u2019s first start since that monstrous April 10 win at Cambridge to give him a second successive Race by Sport Nation victory.<\/p>\n
It showed why he is $1.50 favourite to add a third Inter Dominion crown at Albion Park next month.<\/p>\n
Leap To Fame worked to the front and cruised to his 26th win from his past 27 starts at Albion Park, dating way back to November, 2023.<\/p>\n
He has been unbeaten across two Inter Dominion series. He won three heats and the final in 2023 and two heats and the final last year.<\/p>\n
Leap To Fame missed the 2024 Inter Dominion due to a health setback.<\/p>\n
Trainer-driver Grant Dixon was content to turn last night\u2019s 2138m free-for-all into a sprint home, cruising through a 59.3 first half before blasting home in 53.7 and 26.1sec for a 1min53.1sec mile rate.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat was just a nice workout for him. He ran through the line good and that will sharpen him up a bit more,\u201d Dixon said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe hope to get one more run into him before the heats (of the Inter Dominion), but the program looks a bit tricky.\u201d<\/p>\n
There is a free-for-all slated for Albion Park on June 19, but that will depend on sufficient horses wanting to run against Leap To Fame for it to go ahead.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf not, we\u2019ll settle on getting him right at home and maybe throw in a trial, too,\u201d Dixon said.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe seems good, Trista (Dixon, co-trainer) and I are really happy with him at home. Hopefully he has a good month now leading up to the first round of heats.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s an amazing horse and we\u2019re just so blessed to be part of his racing career.\u201d<\/p>\n
Not long after Leap To Fame winning return, champion four-year-old mare Captains Mistress cruised to another Menangle win last night and many think she could be Leap To Fame\u2019s biggest Inter Dominion danger.<\/p>\n
But she will go through a very different pathway.<\/p>\n
Being four, she is eligible for and a $1.50 favourite to win the $300,000 Group 1 Rising Sun (for three and four-year-old pacers) at Albion Park on July 4.<\/p>\n
Victory would land her a golden ticket into the Inter Dominion final and her second clash with Leap To Fame.<\/p>\n
Their only clash came in the $1 million Miracle Mile at Menangle on March 14 when Leap To Fame and Captains Mistress finished a desperately unlucky fifth.<\/p>\n
Captains Mistress has raced just 10 times for trainer Jason Grimson and the Miracle Mile has been her only defeat.<\/p>\n
Last night she led easily from the pole, dawdled through the first half and ripped home in 53.5 and 25.6sec.<\/p>\n
Grimson is set to try her at standing-start racing for the first time in the $100,000 Group 2 Redcliffe Cup on June 20.<\/p>\n
Leap To Fame definitely won\u2019t go to Redcliffe because of a probable 30m handicap.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"By Adam Hamilton\u00a0 Champion pacer Leap To Fame picked up where he left off with an easy win…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":58095,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[111,139,69,213],"class_list":["post-465397","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/465397","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=465397"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/465397\/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=465397"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=465397"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=465397"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}