Champion\u00a0pacer Leap To Fame will seek\u00a0redemption in the one major Aussie race to elude him.<\/p>\n
Trainer-driver Grant Dixon today confirmed the dual Inter Dominion winner would head south for the $250,000 Group 1 Victoria Cup \u2013 harness racing\u2019s Cox Plate \u2013 at Melton on October 18.<\/p>\n
Leap To Fame, Australasia\u2019s all-time richest pacer with over $4.63 million and 56 wins from 69 starts, has chased the Victoria Cup twice without success.<\/p>\n
In 2023 he ran third as a commanding favourite, then he returned last year but fell ill just days before the race and was scratched.<\/p>\n
Connections had originally planned to bypass the race this year to focus on the $NZ1mil NZ Cup in Christchurch on November 11.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen we sat down to work it all out, the timing fits and it guarantees us some strong racing before NZ where he will need to be absolutely primed,\u201d owner Kevin Seymour said.<\/p>\n
Dixon said surety around a return flight from Brisbane to Melbourne was the key.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s looking really good and that makes or breaks the Victoria Cup as an option,\u201d he said. \u201cWe\u2019d look to get down the Thursday, nine days before the race and head home a day or so after it.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re building as though that\u2019s the plan. He\u2019s back working strongly again, seems great and because he only had a short break, one lead-up race should be enough.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019d look to give him a start here (Albion Park) two weeks ahead of the Victoria Cup.\u201d<\/p>\n
Leap To Fame hasn\u2019t raced since completely dominating the Brisbane Inter Dominion series, including the $1mil Grand Final on July 19.<\/p>\n
It was the second time in three years Leap To Fame has gone through an Inter Dominion series unbeaten.<\/p>\n
Confirmation the Victoria Cup is a target sets up another long-awaited clash between Australasia\u2019s two best pacers, half-brothers Leap To Fame and Swayzee.<\/p>\n
Swayzee won the Victoria Cup in Leap To Fame\u2019s absence last year and then upstaged Leap To Fame when they last clashed in Victoria in the Group 1 Hunter Cup on February 1.<\/p>\n
Leap To Fame holds a 4-2 advantage in their six clashes and they are also likely to clash in the NZ Cup, a race Swayzee has won the past two years.<\/p>\n
Dixon said Leap To Fame\u2019s NZ raid would be a one race \u201chit-and-run\u201d trip.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe won\u2019t have a lead-up race over there, it would mean being away for a month,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe can fly over a week or so before it, possibly go around in the \u2018Cup trial\u2019 at Addington, and then into the Cup itself.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019d want to have him spot on before we went to NZ, which is another reason a strong race like the Victoria Cup is attractive.\u201d<\/p>\n
Swayzee, who has won 30 of his 67 starts and over $2.2 million, hasn\u2019t raced since finishing fourth in the $1mil Group 1 Nullarbor at Gloucester Park on April 25.<\/p>\n
He bypassed the Brisbane Inter Dominion to have a long spell, but is back in serious work for trainer Jason Grimson with the Victoria and NZ Cups his major targets.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Champion\u00a0pacer Leap To Fame will seek\u00a0redemption in the one major Aussie race to elude him. Trainer-driver Grant Dixon…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":61323,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[40],"tags":[3004,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-61322","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-racing","tag-racing","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61322","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=61322"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61322\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/61323"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=61322"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=61322"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=61322"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}