Will Leap To Fame win third Inter Dominion?
by Adam Hamilton
As has been the case in most major races for the past three years Down Under, this Brisbane Inter Dominion is all about the great Leap To Fame.
He adorns every poster and all the promotional material for the sport’s most iconic event.
Why wouldn’t he? Leap To Fame is a Queenslander, this series is run again on his home track and he is chasing more history in his already phenomenal career.
Had it not been for a health setback in late 2024, Leap To Fame would almost certainly be racing for his fourth Inter Dominion’s ultimate honor over the next few weeks.
The 7-year-old has won two Inter Dominion titles (2023 and last year) and a third this month would make him one of just four pacers to have done so.
Our Sir Vancelot was the first in 1997, ’98, and ’99. Im Themightyquinn also won three in a row in 2011, ’12, and ‘13.
In between them was the benchmark, the Inter Dominion’s greatest ever contestant, fellow Queensland pacer Blacks A Fake. He won four crowns in 2006, ’07, ’08, and 2010.
More remarkably, Blacks A Fake contested six consecutive Inter Dominion finals and ran second in the other two, the last of them as a 10-year-old at Auckland’s Alexandra Park in 2011 when he was understandably past his prime.
In a fairytale scenario, Leap To Fame would win his third crown and return for a swansong tilt at equaling Blacks A Fake’s four wins in next year’s series – the last of the three in this rotation at Albion Park.
But for now, it’s all about winning a third.
And another massive milestone awaits.
Leap To Fame heads into the series with 15 Group 1 wins, so victory in the $1 million final on July 18 will make him equal on the all-time Australasian Group 1 list with former greats Lazarus and Westburn Grant.
That’s only fitting for his remarkable body of work all around Australia and New Zealand over the past three years.
The betting markets say this is Leap To Fame’s final to lose, again.
But his always cautious and modest trainer/driver Grant Dixon is a lot more circumspect.
“There’s more depth to the series than people seem to think,” he said. “Winning these is never easy.
“You’ve got a horse like The Janitor knocking on the door, especially over the past six months or so, and I’ll be watching the Rising Sun with huge interest as well. I can see it playing a real role in the Inter Dominion this year.”
Let’s explain why.
Saturday night’s $350,000 Group 1 Rising Sun, a race restricted to 3- and 4-year-old pacers, carries a golden ticket for the winner into the $1 million Inter Dominion final two weeks later (July 18).
Captains Mistress is a raging hot $1.60 favorite (for a $1 bet) to win it.
While it’s a cracking race itself, the chance of a champion mare like Captains Mistress winning the Rising Sun and bouncing into another clash with Leap To Fame is deliciously tantalizing.
They have met just once in the $1 million Miracle Mile on March 14 when Leap To Fame won, but Captains Mistress was buried in traffic and never got a chance to let down. She finished fifth.
Outside of that, Captains Mistress has won her other nine starts since moving from New Zealand to join Jason Grimson’s stable.
She is very special.
The Grimson factor is very real in Inter Dominions.
It was the 2021 Sydney Inter Dominion final when Grimson first announced himself in the big league.
He transformed a washed-up “claimer” Boncel Benjamin into a star and upstaged a strong field to win the pacing final, albeit on protest.
Grimson repeated the dose the following year with another “has been” pacer in I Cast No Shadow to win the Melbourne Inter Dominion final.
Captains Mistress would lap those two pacers.
And Grimson has back-up power this year. Recent stable additions Minos and Dangerous have everybody talking.
Minos turned heads when he charged home for third to Leap To Fame and The Janitor in their final lead-up race at Albion Park two weeks ago.
And, other than Captains Mistress, Dangerous would be the most talented horse to join Grimson’s barn from another trainer.
Formerly trained by Shane Sanderson in Victoria, Dangerous won a heat of the 2024 Sydney Inter Dominion and was fifth to Don Hugo in the final. He’s won 13 races with another 16 placings and will go into the opening round of heats having his first start for Grimson.
Champion Victorian trainers Emma Stewart and Clayton Tonkin have taken a string of runners, headed by last year’s TAB Eureka and Chariots Of Fire winner Bay Of Biscay, to try and win their first Inter Dominion.
But once again it looks like Leap To Fame against the rest.
Queensland has a great chance of winning the trotting final as well with the gifted but slow learning Gus.
Only once since 1978 have horses from the host state won both finals and that was Don Hugo (pacing) and The Locomotive (trotting) in 2024 at Menangle.
With superstar Victorian mares Keayang Zahara and Jilliby Ballerini missing the series for different reasons, Gus is the standout talent and class factor.
I won’t say he’s bullet proof, but winning the huge Group 1 double in Christchurch on New Zealand Cup Week last year — the Dominion Trot and New Zealand Trotting free-for-all — showed how far Gus has come.
At home and with a perfect build up, Gus deserves to be a commanding favorite for trainers Chantal Turpin and Pete McMullen, who also have The Janitor in the pacing series.
The x factor is Stewart and Tonkin’s Susan Is Her Name, the lone trotter they train in a team of 100-plus horses.
Susan Is Her Name has been plagued by injuries, but boasts being the only trotter to have beaten Keayang Zahara in a race.
That was back in May, last year, and injuries have prevented Susan Is Her Name from racing for the 15 months since.
It’s a daring and radical tilt at such a big race, but Stewart and Tonkin are backing her sheer talent.
Defending champion Arcee Phoenix has found form again at the right time, but this is a stronger series than last year.
His trainer Chris “Snooze” Svanosio has taken another four trotters up for support, with the emerging Lovemeto pushing Arcee Phoenix for stable top seed.
There’s something special about the Inter Dominion.
And having Leap To Fame chasing more history in front of his home crowd sets the scene for another amazing chapter in the storied history of the great event.
ABOUT THE BRISBANE INTER DOMINION
How It Works:
• Two rounds of compulsory qualifying heats (July 4 and 11).
• Top points scorers in both the pacing and trotting heats go through to the $1 million pacing final and $500,000 trotting final, respectively on July 18.
• Wildcard ticket into pacing final for winner of the $300,000 Group 1 Rising Sun on July 4 (a race for 3- and 4-year-olds).
• Same applies for trotting final through the $150,000 Group 1 Great Square on July 4.
KEY FIVE — PACING SERIES
1. Leap To Fame (Odds for a $1 bet: $1.50)
2. The Janitor ($5)
3. Captains Mistress ($6)
4. Bay Of Biscay ($26)
5. Dangerous ($4)
KEY FIVE — TROTTING SERIES
1. Gus ($1.60)
2. Susan Is Her Name ($5)
3. Lovemeto ($12)
4. Arcee Phoenix ($21)
5. Rockinwithattitude ($12)
