There is so much on the line for champion pacer Leap To Fame at Melton on Saturday night.
Nothing short of a dominant win will be enough for his trainer-driver Grant Dixon to push ahead with plans to chase the iconic $NZ1mil NZ Cup in Christchurch next month.
It’s Leap To Fame’s last chance to impress.
And it comes at a time his dominance is questioned by some.
The six-year-old, who boasts 57 wins from 72 starts, is trying to avoid a worrying career-first this week.
Since Leap To Fame started racing on March 27, 2021, he has never lost three races in a row.
He heads into this race, his fourth start in as many weeks, on a two-race losing streak.
While Leap To Fame’s shock defeat in the Smoken Up Sprint at Melton on October 11 raises eyebrows, following it up with a fighting but somewhat lacklustre third by his standards in last Saturday’s Group 1 Victoria Cup started tongues wagging.
Dixon conceded Australasia’s all-time richest pacer hadn’t quite been himself in those two runs.
It was Dixon who raised serious doubts about pushing ahead with the long-awaited NZ Cup trip.
It surprised a lot of people when Leap To Fame appeared in the field for the 2240m free-for-all this week.
But Dixon said Leap To Fame bounced out of last week’s defeat well and a precautionary blood test early in the week came back all-clear.
Simply, Dixon can’t find a reason for the champ’s two below par runs, so he wants to race him again to shape the NZ decision.
The best Leap To Fame would easily beat his five rivals this week and that’s not being disrespectful to eight-time Group 1 winner Catch A Wave or marvellous veteran Bulletproof Boy, who upstaged the champ two starts back.
Owner Kevin Seymour has a theory he hopes Leap To Fame will quash this week.
“It’s looking like there’s some sort of hoodoo around him and Melton,” he said. “That’s three races in a row he’s been beaten there. Maybe he just doesn’t go as well there.”
Maybe there’s something in that?
Leap To Fame has won just four of nine starts at Melton, but boasts an almost 80 per cent winning strike rate overall.
But it is Melton where he will have to prove to the always conservative Dixon that he should cross the ditch for one of the best and most gruelling races in the sport on November 11.
If Dixon has any doubts after this race, he will cancel the November 5 flight booking and take Leap To Fame back home to his Tambourine base outside Brisbane to regroup and prepare for the $250,000 Group 1 Blacks A Fake in his own backyard at Albion Park on December 6.
It would rob the NZ Cup of its ultimate headline act, but there will still be strong Aussie flavour.
Swayzee is expected to have a final lead-up at Menangle on Saturday week and fly to Christchurch, via Auckland, on November 8.
The champion Menangle-based stayer is chasing a record equalling third NZ Cup win.
Victoria Cup winner Kingman could also make the trip if he passes a crucial standing-start test in a Menangle trial next Wednesday.
