Work of art: Champion pacer Leap To Fame proving an inspiration ahead of his date with Inter Dominion destiny

Queensland pacing champion Leap To Fame is inspiring harness racing fans from all parts ahead of his date with destiny in Saturday night’s Inter Dominion Pacing Final at Albion Park.

Champion Queensland pacer Leap To Fame is capturing the imagination of harness fans from all parts

THE great thing about champion horses like Leap To Fame is they inspire people to make their own little leaps to fame in the most unexpected ways.

Walking around the Albion Park stables you get used to seeing people carrying buckets, gear and even colours but Michelle Godden, wife of visiting Victorian trainer Colin, had something far more special in her grasp when I spotted her a week ago.

The general store operator from the tiny town of Nanneella (population 450) in the Goulburn Valley was carrying her painting of the great Leap To Fame, so precise and eye-catching that I asked her to pose for the picture you see above.

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She was just about to put it in the office of track manager Tony Turpin to be auctioned with all proceeds going to drivers of the mini-trotters, a genuine act of charity for which she expected no publicity or recognition.

For Michelle, painting Leap to Fame, the white hot favourite for Saturday night’s Ladbrokes Inter Dominion final at Albion Park, was never going to be as routine as the horse’s wins.

At one point she became so “frightened‘’ by the fact it was not taking shape she walked away from it for six weeks. But the lure of a champion drew her back to the canvas.

She calls herself a “paint dabbler‘’ and does not rate herself as a portrait artist and was genuinely down about her rough sketch of trainer-driver Grant Dixon “because it just didn’t look anything like him ... suddenly after a few strokes there he was.”

Michelle Godden with her portrait of the great Leap To Fame Picture: Supplied

There he was indeed, with laser focused eyes and lips pursed and braced for battle. Cool, calm and focused. That’s him. She got him.

Dixon might not be everyone’s cup of tea but he has many strengths as a horseman.

No-one prepares horses better and if Leap To Fame wins on Saturday night he will cement his standing as the second best horse produced in Queensland behind the peerless Blacks A Fake who Dixon’s former wife Natalie Rasmussen drove to an astonishing four Inter Dominion victories.

When his magnificently prepared champion arrives at the races Dixon will be entitled to offer the words of boxer Joe Frazier “if I get beaten there will be no excuses ... there was nothing left to do.”

Dixon’s strengths stretch from being a cool-headed architect of race plans to having freakish knowledge of horse’s gear - and not just his own.

Popular horseman Greg Franklin felt his jaw drop recently when Dixon was driving a horse for him and said “is this African Violet’s crupper?”

It was.

But Dixon had never driven African Voilet. And her last race was - wait for it - way back in January 1999. And he still knew what she wore.

Extraordinary.

Queensland pacing champion Leap To Fame Picture: Dan Costello

Great horses deserve great names. Winx, Black Caviar and Leap To Fame got the names they deserved.

The poignancy of the name Leap To Fame is accentuated by the fact that it sums up the journey of the horse’s driver and its owner.

Billionaire owner Kevin Seymour has owned thousands of pacers – most of them with blood as blue as a desert sky – calls this horse “the one I have been waiting for for 40 years.’’

Dixon has similar sentiments but emotion will play no part in his tactics on Saturday night.

From barrier one he will either lead or take the lead soon after. No horse will challenge him mid-race. That would be the very definition of suicide in a sulky.

From there he will race away to his second Inter Dominion final win before his adoring home fans … a leap to fame if ever there was one.

Originally published as Work of art: Champion pacer Leap To Fame proving an inspiration ahead of his date with Inter Dominion destiny