Aussie News - July 21

By Adam Hamilton

Another feature night and another Group 1 win for champion pacer Leap To Fame.

Grant Dixon’s five-year-old posted his 10th Group win at his 40th career from just 51 starts in the $200,000 Sunshine Sprint.

Leap To Fame’s earnings shot to $2,966,485.

As expected, Jason Grimson’s speedster District Attorney found the lead, but opted to take a trail on Leap To Fame, eventually running a solid 2.5m second in a 1min50sec flat mile rate for 1660m. The closing splits were 53.8 and 26.6sec.

Grimson was also thrilled with his third and four placegetters, Hi Manameisjeff, who sat parked, and Nerano, who charged home from a mile back.

“The wind really picked up around the time of the race so it was hard for horses to get up and keen. He did everything expected and it tops him off nicely for next week," Dixon said.

Next week is a rematch with half-brother Swayzee in the $400,000 Group 1 Blacks A Fake, a race Swayzee upstaged Leap To Fame in last year. Both Leap To Fame and defending champion Swayzee look great chances to make the trip to the IRT New Zealand Cup at Addington in November.

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Champion Aussie mare Ladies In Red has almost certainly run her last race after a disappointing sixth in last night’s $150,000 Group 1 Golden Girl at Albion Park.

The race was billed as a rematch between Ladies In Red, who was crunched into $1.55 favourite and led, and former Kiwi mare Aardie's Express, who beat her at their only meeting in the Group 1 Queen Elizabeth on May 4.

Aardies Express definitively won that battle after parking outside Ladies In Red and beating her off, but it was Luke McCarthy’s emerging mare Eye Keep Smiling who stalked and dashed past them all to win in a 1min51.5sec mile rate for 2138m.

Eye Keep Smiling’s win strongly pushed her case for a slot in the world’s richest harness race, the $2.1mil TAB Eureka at Menangle on September 7.

Remembering, McCarthy drove a four-year-old mare Encipher to win last year’s Eureka and mares get a preferential draw,

McCarthy already has his underrated four-year-old Don Hugo in the TAB Eureka field.

Aardie's Express ran second, with two other former Kiwi mares, Manhattan and Illavabubbles, running big races for third and fourth respectively in the Golden Girl.

In other Eureka news, Grant Dixon’s improving Free Thinker raced his way into the race by winning last night’s $207,000 Hayden at Albion Park.

The win guaranteed him Racing Queensland’s TAB Eureka slot.

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Former NZ Oaks winner Aardiebytheseaside is headed towards some serious races in WA.

The four-year-old resumed from a break and extended her unbeaten record to three for new trainers Greg and Skye Bond when she won in sparkling style at Gloucester Park last Friday night.

Having her first run since May 3, Aardiebytheseaside sat just off the speed, but showed blazing speed to blow her rivals away and win by 20.3m in a 1min55.3sec mile rate for 2130m.

She’s got feature mares’ races like the Norms Daughter and WA Mares’ Classic later this year and Bond said he wouldn’t be afraid to take on the boys.

“There’s the big four-year-old races at the end of the year, too. On what she’s showing, she’s good enough to have a crack at them,” he said.

“I’ve had some lovely mares, but she’s on her way to potentially being the best of them."

On the same card, veteran former Kiwi gelding Diego again showed how lethal he is in front by landing a plunge in the free-for-all for driver Maddison Brown and trainer Gary Hall Sr.

It was Diego’s 27th career win from 100 starts and edged him within a whisker of $900,000 in career earnings.

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Highly-talented former Kiwi trotter Gus is really delivering on his potential.

The Chantal Turpin-trained five-year-old switched from standing-start racing back to the mobile and blitzed his rivals, including Inter Dominion runner-up Mufasa Metro, in last night’s Group 3 Trotters’ Sprint at Albion Park.

Gus, who has won his past five starts and 13 of 29 lifetime, looks a clear top pick for next Saturday’s $100,000 Group 1 Queensland Trotters’ Cup.

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Queensland's vision to create the $500,000 Protostar for two-year-old pacers is paying dividends.

Australasia’s richest juvenile race will attract a stellar field at Albion Park next Saturday night.

It has the makings of the best juvenile race Australia has seen in many years.

Some of the biggest names warmed up in last night’s Group 3 Paleface Adios at Albion Park where Sweet On Sexy sat parked and upstaged a hot field, including luckless runner-up Hesitate and flying filly Bittersweet.

The disappointment was Grant Dixon’s Fate Awaits, who tired for fifth and an early move around the field to lead.

“He wasn’t himself tonight. We’ll take a blood Monday before confirming he’ll push ahead,” Dixon said.

Still to come are the likes of unbeaten Victorian youngster The Highlight Reel and NSW’s My Ultimate Barney.

The latter turned plenty of heads at Penrith last Thursday, thrashing older rivals by almost 30m and being eased down late in a scorching 1min53.6sec mile rate for 1720m around the old-school and slow track by modern standards.

My Ultimate Barney’s time was just one second outside the all-age track record.

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Next Saturday’s Group 1 Queensland Oaks looks a lot more open after star Victorian filly Very Pretty suffered her first defeat at Melton last night.

The NSW Oaks winner went into the race unbeaten in eight runs, but drew the back row against older rivals and was narrowly upstaged by $41 outsider Exotic Bushranger.

No doubt she will be improved by the run, but the connections of Millwood Bliss and Aardie B Miki will have increased confidence she can beat Very Pretty in the Oaks, especially if the barriers go their way.

Very Pretty’s defeat at $1.04 was one of three major upsets on the night at Melton.

Her stablemates Petracca, the Victoria Derby winner, and buzz four-year-old High Above were beaten into fourth and third respectively as odds-on favourites.

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Kiwi-bred filly Lucky Mum led throughout to win the Group 3 Queensland Trotters’ Oaks last Friday night.

The daughter of Father Patrick won two of her 12 NZ runs before joining Queensland trainer Al Barnes where she has won two of three runs and finished third in the Group 1 Great Square at the other.