Queensland sensation Leap To Fame isn’t just the best horse in this part of the world, he is the most important, too.

It takes more than sheer talent to get mainstream cut-through, but that’s exactly what Leap To Fame is starting to do in Australia and he will soon carry that to NZ.

Driving part of that is the desire of his owners Kevin and Kay Seymour to take their “once-in-a-lifetime” horse to the people.

Many were surprised when Kevin Seymour first touted the possibility of staying in Victoria for a week longer after the Hunter Cup to tackle the Cranbourne Cup.

Then, instead of going down the traditional route of chasing a Miracle Mile berth through one of the two qualifying sprints at Menangle, then Kevin Seymour devised a plan with trainer-driver Grant Dixon to go to last Friday week’s $100,000 Newcastle Mile instead.

Think about that.

It would be like Winx of Nature Strip going “off Broadway” to a regional track in the thoroughbred world.

It would not happen.

And the people at Cranbourne and Newcastle loved it.

“You should have seen the crowd gathered around the winner’s circle at Newcastle. It was worth it (going to Newcastle) alone to see that,” Seymour said.

Go back earlier and Seymour devised a plan to “give away” five per cent of Leap To Fame to one lucky fan for the entire Brisbane Inter Dominion series last December.

A young fella from Brisbane had the ride of his life, trackside for Leap To Fame’s three heat wins and then sharing the stage with the Seymours for the presentation after the Grand Final win.

He pocketed about $17,000 for “his” slice of the prize money, too.

The Leap To Fame resumes this week on one of harness racing’s biggest stages, the $1mil Miracle Mile at Menangle.

Adding to the oomph of the race is the fact Leap To Fame is chasing history.

No pacer has won Australian harness racing’s “Triple Crown” – the Inter Dominion pacing final, Hunter Cup and Miracle Mile – in the one campaign.

Even Dixon has conceded this will be Leap To Fame’s greatest challenge yet.

The sprint trip isn’t ideal and spending a couple of days couped-up in the retention barn – for a stallion who lives in a yard – won’t suit him, either.

Modern greats of the game, Lazarus and Blacks A Fake, dominated the sport at times, but couldn’t win a Miracle Mile.

Leap To Fame is like them. The longer the races, the more dominant he becomes.

If he can win this Miracle Mile, Leap To Fame will earn status alongside some of the greats through Aussie harness history.

That’s not an opinion. It’s a fact.

Beyond the Miracle Mile, the Leap To Fame show will go “global” for the first time. Well, at least he’ll race outside of Australia for the first time, in the $NZ1mil Race By Grins slot race at Cambridge on April 12.

It’s another example of Leap To Fame’s importance to the sport and how Seymour is maximising that.

“We had several of the slot owners in the race come to us, so we decided to go to a tender process,” Seymour.

“In asking for tenders, we stressed the slot owners had outlined how they would promote the horse, the race and the sport.”

Seymour put a premium on that element and will announce the “winning” slot owner in the next 24 hours.

“Horses like this don’t come around often and we know the value he can have in promoting the sport, so we want to maximise that,” Seymour said.

“We’re also looking forward to taking him to the NZ people for the first time.”

It begs the question whether Leap To Fame could go even more global – like the US – later in his career.

“There’s been no shortage of offers,” Seymour said. “As exciting as it sounds, it’s not on the radar at the moment.

“We’re having so much fun racing him here and there’s lots of good races for him.”