When you are Leap To Fame, you are judged by different standards.
That’s not a criticism, just a fact.
And in Larry’s case, those different standards are the level of greatness he has set for himself.
When you dominate for so long and boast an almost 80 per cent winning strike rate, victory is generally assumed.
So, it’s to be expected tongues started wagging after Leap To Fame was beaten in two consecutive races for the first time in almost two years when he finished third in last Saturday night’s Group 1 Victoria Cup.
The chatter was further fuelled when his trainer-driver Grant Dixon said moments after the race that the champ “didn’t travel as well as he normally does” during the race.
He conceded Larry wasn’t racing quite at his top.
The eye and a breakdown of the sectional times added merit and proof, if you’d like, to Dixon’s summation.
Leap To Fame has been beaten before, but almost every time he’s still been clearly the best run in the race.
You couldn’t say that at his past two starts.
He was run down by veteran Bulletproof Boy after getting a good run in front in the Smoken Up Sprint last Saturday week.
Sure, Leap To Fame improved plenty off that in the Victoria Cup, but it would be unfair on winner Kingman to say he didn’t go at least as well, if not better, than Larry.
The sectional times and extra ground covered by both pacers say as much.
Leap To Fame covered slightly less extra ground (away from the insider marker pegs) at 26m than Kingman’s 27m.
Kingman ran his last mile of the 2240m in a sparkling 1min51.6sec. That’s almost a full second quicker than Larry’s 1min52.5sec.
And that’s not including another big factor, the “scary” gallop Kingman had for a couple of strides midrace when McCarthy went to ease him to take a trail on Leap To Fame.
Dixon was the one to point out the significance of that.
“It’s a huge thing for a horse to gallop, regroup and still sprint home as well as he did,” Dixon said.
“He won by a couple of metres, but if he hadn’t galloped, he’d have won much more easily.
“Yes, Larry was probably down a bit on his best, but it’s disrespectful to the winner to take anything away from him. It was a huge win.”
Three other theories were tossed around after Leap To Fame’s latest defeat.
Then old chestnut, which definitely has merit, about him not being as dominant in sprint and middle distances as he is staying contests.
Statistically, that’s true. Leap To Fame has been in 10 Grand Circuit races. He’s won four of six at 2600m or further, and just one of four in shorter races.
Then there is the Melton track. Is he just not as good at Melton?
While his career winning strike rate is almost 80 per cent, he’s now won just four of nine starts at Melton.
Dixon himself has spoken (favourably) about the lovely (heavier) cushioning surface Melton has compared to Albion Park. Is that difference a factor?
Before you say: “hang on, he always runs in major races when he comes to Melton”, that’s not entirely true.
His only two major wins in nine Victorian starts have been in the 2022 Victoria Derby final and 2024 Hunter Cup. His defeats include a Derby heat and that recent Smoken Up Sprint.
He’s now lost his past three starts at Melton.
Could it be he just hasn’t quite come up as well this preparation?
It’s not something we even think about with Larry because he’s delivered every campaign and everywhere.
The one theory I’m not taking seriously, at least not yet, is that we’re seeing the end of an era or a changing of the guard.
That talk started earlier this year when Leap To Fame was beaten in the Hunter Cup and Miracle Mile in the space of five weeks.
Not long after, Larry went all the way to Cambridge in NZ and produced arguably his all-time greatest performance in the Race by Betcha.
Champions have a habit of doing that.
Whether he goes to NZ next month or skips it and targets the Blacks A Fake in his own backyard, Leap To Fame has earned the right to another couple of runs before we start speculating on his demise.
