Is Leap To Fame still the No. 1 pacer Down Under?
After two losses to Kingman, tongues are starting to wag.
by Adam Hamilton
The debate is on Down Under.
Is Leap To Fame still pacing’s top seed or have we seen a changing of the guard?
Kingman’s emergence has been sudden and stunning, but are two successive wins against Leap To Fame enough to swing the title?
After four years as the toast of Down Under pacing and the past two of them an irrepressible open class “King,” Leap To Fame has been challenged like never before.
Sure, there has been his older half-brother Swayzee, who has beaten Leap To fame twice in major races, and as recently as the Group 1 Hunter Cup in February.
And Don Hugo bounced from his TAB Eureka win in September last year to ruin Leap To Fame’s Miracle Mile title defense in March, this year.
But there is something different and striking about Kingman.
Both times Swayzee has beaten Leap To Fame — in the 2023 Blacks A Fake and Hunter Cup earlier this year — he’s had an easier run to do so.
In both races, Swayzee has enjoyed the decided advantage of leading with Leap To Fame forced to do the work outside him in the “death” seat.
Even in defeat, Leap To Fame has still been the best run in the race.
It was the same when Don Hugo led throughout to win the Miracle Mile back on March 8. Leap To Fame had to sit outside him, went down fighting, and was universally regarded as the best run of the race.
In fact, I can’t recall a race over the past three years where a horse has gone better than Leap To Fame, whether the champ has won or lost.
Until Kingman.
Sure, he had the drop on Leap To Fame in the Victoria Cup at Melton on Oct. 18 with Leap To Fame in the death seat again and Kingman stalking him one-out, one-back.
But Kingman did some early work, galloped for a couple of strides midrace, covered more extra ground in the 2,240-mile race than Leap To Fame and still ran him down comfortably.
That was to prove just an entrée.
What he did in the $1 million New Zealand Cup (Nov. 11) was almost unbelievable.
Many say it was as good a performance as the race has ever seen in its 120-plus year history.
“I drive here all the time and you can’t do that,” top New Zealand driver John Dunn said. “To come three-wide so far out and still win, let alone run down Leap To Fame to do it… it was just incredible.
“And he still looks like he’s learning what it’s all about, the way he hung badly a few times.
“He’s only 4, too. Who knows how good he could be.”
As he so often does, Leap To Fame made an early move around the field, but had to again sit in the death seat outside the leader when young gun driver Carter Dalgety opted to hold the lead on in-form local Republican Party.
Most thought that would be the end of any midrace moves in the iconic two-mile feature.
But a gasp of awe went through the huge Addington crowd when Kingman’s trainer/driver Luke McCarthy launched with a three-wide run around the field with a tad less than half the race to go – about 1,400 meters from home.
Most thought it was a strange move, some even felt it was a brain snap.
But McCarthy knew.
“I wanted to get him handy,” McCarthy said. “The pace had slowed up a bit, I knew nothing else would make an early move and that it would turn into a real dash home.
“It was a big field and the longer I waited, the more traffic I thought I’d have in front of me.”
Despite covering so much extra ground and being outside Leap To Fame, McCarthy started to get confident at the 600 meters.
“I looked over and Carter and Grant [Dixon, driving Leap To Fame] were starting to ask their horses. Kingman was still jogging,” he said.
Leap To Fame dug in and got past Republican Party and fended off a spurt through the field from another star local, Merlin, but Kingman went whoosh down the outside and beat him easily.
As brave as the champ was, he had been humbled at his own game.
No horse had ever beaten him like that.
Three days later, Leap To Fame returned to winning form in the Group 1 New Zealand free-for-all, but Kingman stayed home and didn’t compete.
Instead, Kingman stepped-out last Friday night and easily won the Group 1 Christian Cullen against his own age (4-year-olds).
The obvious question being asked is whether Leap To Fame, now rising 7, is quite as good as he has been over the past few years?
Is age and a series of powerhouse and demanding wins taking its toll?
It’s fair to ponder, but let’s not forget, had Kingman not been there, Leap To Fame would have done all the work, won the NZ Cup and been lauded (again) as one of the greatest we have ever seen.
Maybe the champ is down a tad on his awesome and almost unstoppable best.
But Kingman looks something else.
He’s not yet 5 and has only raced 34 times.
Kingman hadn’t yet raced when Leap To Fame and Swayzee staged that epic battle in the Group 1 Blacks A Fake on July 15, 2023.
So, should Kingman now be top seed?
McCarthy, despite his enormous opinion of Kingman, says no.
“It’s too early to say that,” he said. “It’s been two races. Leap To Fame has done it for years and he’s still the benchmark for sure.”
Leading Aussie media man Gareth Hall has already jumped ship.
“Kingman is the new king,” Hall said. “The Victoria Cup was great, but to do it again in the way he did in the New Zealand Cup shows he’s now the best horse in our part of the world.”
Prominent Aussie form analyst Darren Carroll agrees with McCarthy.
“I put huge value in longevity,” Carroll said. “And Leap To Fame has turned up month-after-month, year-after-year in all the biggest races and in all different places.
“You can’t say Kingman has taken over from him yet, but he’s certainly coming at him… and hard.
“It’s exciting. What a summer it sets us up for.”
What a summer indeed.
Kingman has returned to Sydney for a bit of a freshen-up before he heads to Victoria in early January.
Leap To Fame is back in Queensland after his longest stint away from home across an almost five-year career.
He’s got a title defense in the $250,000 Group 1 Blacks A Fake at Albion Park on Dec. 6.
Then he’s back to Melbourne, too.
Harness Racing Victoria’s decision to build a six-week, six-race “Cups” series through January/February now looks inspired.
The fact that it carries a potential $1 million bonus is another driving reason Leap To Fame and Kingman will be such a big part of it.
The bonus can be won by any pacer who wins four of the six races, but they must include the last and best of them, the $250,000 Group 1 Hunter Cup at Melton on Feb. 14.
So, it’s Victoria where harness racing’s newest and hottest rivalry will resume.
And not in just one race, but maybe two or three of those six Cups.
I’m with McCarthy and Carroll, the challenger is coming, but the champ is still the top seed.
It could all change by Feb. 14.
