Leap To Fame seeks Inter Dominion hat trick

But a huge battle is looming with talented mare Captains Mistress.

by Adam Hamilton

The entrees are over and the main dish could be one of the best we’ve ever been served.

Saturday night’s (July 18) $1 million Inter Dominion pacing final has all the ingredients and intrigue of an epic.

Let’s break it down and start with the obvious, the defending champion and greatest of them all, Leap To Fame.

Going into the series, most expected him to just dominate again on his home deck. He still might, but things have changed over the past two weeks of the series.

Leap To Fame’s done nothing wrong at all. In fact, he’s kept winning and extended his record to an astonishing 30 wins from his past 31 starts at Albion Park dating back to Nov. 4, 2023.

Even his one defeat was just a whisker when he did all the work and was nosed out by another star of a much softer trip, Don Hugo, in last December’s Group 1 Blacks A Fake.

Larry, as Leap To Fame is affectionately known, is into his third Inter Dominion and remains unbeaten through nine races (seven qualifying heats and two finals so far since 2023).

He is the favorite to become just the fourth pacer in the 90-year history of the Inter Dominion to win three or more finals.

Blacks A Fake stands alone on four wins (2006, ’07, ’08, and 2010). Im Themightyquinn (2011, ’12, and ’13) and Our Sir Vancelot (1997, ’98, and ’99) are the others.

This is the rarefied air Leap To Fame is chasing.

“Going into races like this, I just don’t want to let him down,” trainer/driver Grant Dixon said. “Any pressure I feel is to him justice because he’s so good.

“I really hope he gets this third win. I think he deserves to be up with those other champions who have.”

But Leap To Fame’s chances were a dealt a blow at Monday’s barrier draw, in two ways.

He drew poorly off the back row (gate 11), almost consigning him to a devilishly hard run to win.

But that’s nothing new and he’s overcome it before.

He just hasn’t overcome it against a young mare who has everybody talking, Captains Mistress.

Remarkably the 4-year-old Kiwi-bred mare had not even raced when Leap To Fame won his first Inter Dominion title in late 2023.

Now she’s the most exciting pacer in this part of the world.

And she’s landed a much better draw than Larry. Captains Mistress will start from gate 6 and find the lead, it’s just a matter of how long that takes and how much work she has to do.

No driver has been in more high profile stoushes against Leap To Fame than young gun, Cam Hart, but this is the first time he’s teamed with Captains Mistress to try and dethrone the champ.

“I’m not daunted or intimidated, I’m excited,” Hart said. “I’m buzzing. Maybe it’s the competitor in me, but I’ve never been more pumped going into a race.

“Leap To Fame is the very best and trying to beat him is what it’s all about.

“I’ve been lucky to do it three times with Swayzee who is such a great stayer, but you couldn’t get a more different horse than him with this mare, who is just so brilliant.

“You have to ask Swayzee to do everything, this mare just does it herself and with such a high cruising. Swayzee is great, but she’s by far the most exciting horse I’ve driven.

“She can absolutely beat Leap To Fame. I hoped for a draw to stay in front of him and we’ve got it. It’s race on.

“Anyone who likes any sort of racing, or any sport for that matter, this is a race not to miss. Two of the all-time greats going at it.

“I mean Leap To Fame is already a great and if this mare races for another 12-18 months, people will be saying the same thing about her, I’m sure.”

They have met just once and that told us nothing. It was in the $1 million Miracle Mile on March 14 when Leap To Fame scored a monstrous win after doing all the work, but Captains Mistress was driven quietly, badly held up in traffic, and never saw daylight.

Many say she’d have won with clear running.

The race has got everyone talking and divided opinions.

Champion driver Luke McCarthy, older brother of Todd and Andy, won the 2024 Inter Dominion final on Don Hugo and is firmly in the Leap To Fame corner.

“They get to a longer distance, which really suits Leap To Fame and gives Grant [Dixon] the chance to turn it into a war and he wins those most of time,” McCarthy said.

Australia’s all-time most successful driver, Chris Alford, who has two Inter Dominion wins with Lennytheshark (2015) and Golden Reign (1995), is even more bullish about Leap To Fame.

“If the lead time is fast, which it should be, Larry will come around, sit outside her and crush her,” he said.

But top Victorian driver Kate Gath sees it differently.

“For the first time in my life I’m tipping against Larry and I don’t feel good about it, but this mare will lead and she’s just so fast and seems to be able to hold that high speed,” she said.

The betting says it will be close with Leap To Fame at $2.20 (for a $1 bet) and Captains Mistress at $2.50.

What a race it will be.

It could be a huge night for the host state, Queensland, who is also home to raging hot $500,000 Inter Dominion trotting final favorite Gus.

The one-time enigmatic rogue is even shorter than Leap To Fame to win his final at $1.40 (for a $1 bet).

Before his shocking defeat in the second round of heats last Saturday night, those odds looked generous.

But there are now some doubts.

Those doubts were quelled quite a bit when Gus drew perfectly in barrier 2, while his two major dangers, Chris Svanosio-trained pair Arcee Phoenix (barrier 11) and Lovemeto (8), landed on the back row.

If the Gus who won the huge New Zealand Group 1 double at the iconic Cup Week in Addington last November turns up and behaves, it’s race over.

But he still has to do that and be sharper than last week.

If he and Leap To Fame win, it will be just the second time since 1978 both finals have been won by horses trained in the Inter Dominion host state.

Don Hugo and The Locomotive did it in NSW in 2024, but before that it was Markovina and Derby Royale in Victoria way back in 1978.

History will be broken regardless when trail-blazing female Kerryn Manning, an inspiration to so many, drives in her 17th trotting final aboard Lovemeto.

It will break the tie she has with the late, great Gavin Lang by an Australian with 16 drives.

Only Kiwi champions Tony Herlihy and Anthony Butt have driven in more with 19.

Amazingly, Manning is yet to win one. The closest she has come was second on La Coocaracha in 2002 and third with Knight Pistol twice (1997 and ’98).

“Growing up it’s the race you want to win,” Manning said. “I’ve come close, but gee I’d love to win one.”

Now wouldn’t that be a story.