Across the Ditch: Leap To Fame lines up raid before NZ Cup
Across the Ditch • August 15th, 2025 2:35 PM • 3 min read
Harness Racing - Adam Hamilton
In a coup for Victorian fans, connections confirmed Australasia’s all-time richest pacer would head to Victoria before crossing the ditch to chase the $1mil IRT NZ Trotting Cup later this year.
Trainer-driver Grant Dixon said Leap To Fame would make a hit-and-run raid for the A$250,000 Gr.1 Victoria Cup (2240m) at Melton on October 18.
“He’ll then head back home (to Brisbane) straight after it and have a week or so where he loves it before we float him to Sydney for the flight to Auckland,” Dixon said.
Leap To Fame’s Victorian trip sets up a seventh clash with his arch-rival and older half-brother, Swayzee. Leap To Fame leads 4-2 so far.
But Swayzee did beat Leap To Fame when they last clashed at Melton in the Gr.1 Hunter Cup on February 1.
Dixon said Leap To Fame was likely to have a trial and just one lead race (most likely on October 4 at Albion Park) before the Victoria Cup.
More immediately, Dixon hopes to have two, maybe even three, runners in the world’s richest harness race, the A$2.1mil TAB Eureka at Menangle on September 6.
“Call To Order has the Racing Queensland slot through his win in The Hayden, while we’re really optimistic the three-year-olds Fate Awaits and Path To Greatness will get slots,” he said.
“That’s where we’re aiming them, but don’t expect to see them race before it. If they both get in, they’ve got good residual fitness for busy winter racing and will only need a trial to bring them to their top.”
Although Leap To Fame will be missing from the huge September 6 meeting at Menangle, there will still be strong Queensland flavour.
Last month’s Brisbane Inter Dominion runner-up Speak The Truth is set to join stablemate Sure Thing Captain and head south for the A$150,000 Gr.1 Len Smith Mile – Australia’s next open-class feature – on the same night.
It’s a very open-class feature without Australasian’s top three pacers – Leap To Fame, Swayzee and Don Hugo – lining up.
“We want to go wherever Leap To Fame isn’t going,” laughed trainer Shannon Price. “My horses, especially Speak The Truth, have spent much of the past two or three years chasing him.
“The chance to go into a big race without him is something we have to jump at.”
Greyhound Racing - Jared Timms
Feature racing continues in Australia this week, headlined by Million Dollar Chase regional heats and the beginning of the A$25,000 Mid North Coast Cup series at Taree.
Group 1 winner Coast Rig is just one of several talented greyhounds entered for the Mid North Coast Cup series and steps out this week following several typically sharp performances in town.
Having won the Peter Mosman Opal Final at Wentworth Park in July from Box 1, trainer Patricia Chaker is hopeful that Coast Rig will fare similarly well through this series.
“The one really suits her, especially at Taree, because it’s such a tight track,” Chaker told the Greyhound Recorder.
“It is hard to win off the eight at Taree. The stats show that only six percent of winners come from the eight there.”
Having performed fairly here at Taree three runs back, Chaker underlined the Megastar at Dapto in September as the next Group 1 target for her kennel star.
“My bitch liked the track,” she said.
“After this series, we will head to Dapto for the Megastar.”
Coast Rig has won nine of 33 career starts since debuting, having placed a further 13 times for more than A$130,000 in prizemoney.
