Out of the spotlight, Leap To Fame ticks every box for the NZ Cup

Leap To Fame (Bettors Delight – Lettucereason) did not get a headline on Saturday night, and in our view that suited him just fine.

While Captains Mistress was making history in the Victoria Cup at Melton, the champion was in Brisbane at Albion Park, winning a $21,378 Open Pace by 26.1 metres. It was the 75th win of his 95-start career, and it may prove the more useful run of the two when it comes to the New Zealand Cup.

On paper the race was a non-event. Three scratchings, including stablemate Free Thinker, left a field of four, and Leap To Fame started at $1.03. Grant Dixon had him in front from barrier two and he was never challenged, winning in a 1:52.1 mile rate over 2138m and coming home in 26.4 and 27.2.

Still, a soft win is exactly what this campaign has been built around. Dixon skipped the Victoria Cup this year after twice finishing third in it, and chose a different path to Addington.

“We’ve tried to win that a few times and haven’t,” Dixon said.

The plan has been followed to the letter. Leap To Fame resumed with a 6.7-metre win at Albion Park on September 26, stepped up to 2138m for a 3.1-metre win under co-trainer Trista Dixon a week later, had a week off, and now has a third straight win in the bank without having had to dig deep at any stage. He is due to fly to New Zealand from Sydney on November 3, with the Cup at Addington on November 10.

It is easy to forget how rare that kind of preparation is for a horse of his standing. He has spent most of the past four years being set for the biggest races in Australasia, travelling to Melton, Menangle, Ballarat and Cambridge. This time the stable has kept him at home and let the opposition do the travelling.

There is a case that the Victoria Cup would have been a better test. Captains Mistress beat him by 1.2 metres in the Inter Dominion final in July and won again on Saturday, and Kingman, last year’s NZ Cup winner, ran fourth. But Jason Grimson has said Captains Mistress will not contest the NZ Cup, and a hard run at Melton five weeks before a 3200m Cup was a risk the stable chose not to take.

His year speaks for itself. From 18 starts in 2026 he has won 15 and run second in the other three, earning $1,560,004. The wins include the Miracle Mile, the Ballarat Cup, the Cranbourne GoldCup, the Kilmore Pacing Cup and the $1 million The Race at Cambridge, which he won by 21 metres.

What he has not won is a New Zealand Cup. He ran second in it last year, beaten 3.75 metres by Kingman. He is due to retire to stud after next July’s Inter Dominion in Brisbane, so this may well be his last chance.

Connections know far more about their horse than we do. But a seven-year-old who has won three from three this campaign, without being asked a serious question, looks to be arriving at Addington in exactly the shape his stable intended.

Leap To Fame has won 75 of his 95 starts, with 15 seconds and three thirds, for $6,567,238 in stakes.

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From Harnesslink Media