Superstar jockey Blake Shinn and champion pacer Leap To Fame have more in common than you think.
Both are chasing huge career firsts on Saturday.
Shinn hopes Vauban will give him his first Caulfield Cup win at his seventh ride in the great race. And victory in Saturday night’s $250,000 Group 1 Sportsbet Victoria Cup would tick the one glaring gap in Leap To Fame’s remarkable CV.
Shinn, who visited Leap To Fame and his trainer-driver Grant Dixon in Toolern Vale this week, will be watching on and cheering.
It reminded Shinn of his younger years, growing up working in harness stables and driving horses in training for his uncles Glen and Ken Tippet.
He is an unashamed Leap To Fame fan. “I love getting to the trots, but it’s hard when you’ve got races all day, especially a big day like Saturday at Caulfield,” he said.
“I’m looking forward to getting home after the races, hopefully having ridden a winner or two, and cheering for him on TV.”
In a coup for the sport, Leap To Fame’s quest to create history in the Victoria Cup will be shown live to a broad audience on 7Two and 7Plus from 6-10pm.
Leap To Fame is already the all-time richest harness horse in Australasia and still has at least 10 months of racing, and a string of rich feature races, ahead of him. The six-year-old has banked $4,630,884, passing the longtime benchmarks of Blacks A Fake ($4,575,438) and Im Themightyquinn ($4,567,456).
The Victoria Cup is the obvious missing piece of silverwareor Leap To Fame after trying to win it twice. He did all the work outside the leader when third in a stirring three-way finish in 2023, and was then a clear favourite but scratched just days before the race with a throat infection last year.
Adding to the theatre and theory of the cup being a hoodoo race for him, Leap To Fame was beaten in the sport’s biggest upset for 25 years in his final lead-up race at Melton last Saturday.
Dixon could pinpoint no reason for the defeat and turned the page to focus on this week. “He came through it well, he’s eating well and his work has been fantastic; I can’t fault him,” he said. “Maybe he just had an off night. He’s been beaten before and bounced straight back. I hope it’s the same this week.”
