Harness racing: Leap To Fame begins bid for Victoria Cup redemption

The owner of Leap To Fame has his sights on the few Group 1 majors his harness champ is yet to win in the coming weeks.

Leap To Fame is back in action on Saturday night. Picture: Dan Costello

Champion pacer Leap To Fame returns to racing at Albion Park on Saturday night as he prepares to take his greatness to another level.

Owner Kevin Seymour has his sights set on the only two majors Leap To Fame is yet to win, the Victoria and New Zealand Cups – in coming weeks.

The first of them is the $300,000 Group 1 Victoria Cup – widely regarded as the Cox Plate of harness racing – at Melton on October 12.

In a rare major defeat, Leap To Fame did all the work and finished a close-up third as a hot favourite at his first attempt at the Victoria Cup last year.

That defeat has fuelled a different approach this year.

Leap To Fame, who hasn’t raced since winning the Group 1 Blacks A Fake at Albion Park on July 27, looks set to head south a week earlier to have his final lead-up race at Melton in the $50,000 Smoken Up Sprint (1720m) on Saturday week.

“We’ll make a final decision after he runs (at Albion Park) this week, but we’re strongly leaning that way,” Seymour said.

“Grant felt we didn’t quite have him absolutely primed in last year’s Victoria Cup, so we want to make sure he is this time.

“Heading down a week earlier would ensure us a good, strong lead-up race the week before the Victoria Cup.

“And the Victorian officials have strongly promoted him coming. We’d love to support them.”

Leap To Fame’s last trip to Victoria was back in February when he raced twice there for dominant wins in the Group 1 Hunter Cup and Group 2 Cranbourne.

He is $1.90 to add the Victoria Cup.

The five-year-old, who boasts 41 wins from just 52 starts and almost $3.2m, is even shorter at $1.70 to add the $NZ1m NZ Cup to his bulging CV in Christchurch on November 12.

“Unless something changes, he’ll go to NZ,” Seymour said.

“We won’t finalise when he goes over until after the Victoria Cup.

“We’d love to take the horse across to race in NZ for the first time. It’s such a country with so much history and passion for harness racing and the NZ Cup itself is a really special race.

“It’s a race that would also really suit him over the two miles (3200m) because he’s such a great stayer.”

* Adam Hamilton is a paid contributor writing on harness racing for News Corp

Originally published as Harness racing: Leap To Fame begins bid for Victoria Cup redemption