Leap To Fame resumes in style at Albion Park

By Adam Hamilton

It was the perfect return.

Nothing flashy, but a win without spending too much petrol for Leap To Fame when he resumed from a spell at Albion Park last night.

On a heavy track and in driving rain, it was clear Grant Dixon wanted to give his champion as easy a time as possible, while still desperate to win.

There were no midrace fireworks.

Dixon snagged Leap To Fame back from an awkward inside back row draw to get into the one-wide line and then made a move around the field in the middle stages to sit outside the leader and main danger, Wisper A Secret.

While Dixon would then usually “eyeball” the leader, he backed right off and let Pete McMullen run a slow 30.7sec second quarter.

Then things got a bit more serious with a 27.2sec split down the back straight.

Wisper A Secret kept rolling, but Leap To Fame looked to have his measure as they straightened for him and Dixon just nursed him to a win by just half a neck.

Despite the conditions, they ripped home in 54.8sec.

The mile rate was 1min53.8sec, well outside Leap To Fame’s 1min51sec flat track record.

“You don’t take those races for granted, especially from a tricky draw like that,” Dixon said.

“Wisper A Secret is a serious horse and it didn’t surprise me he was hard to get past, but ‘Larry’ did it well.”

It was Leap To Fame’s first run since that mind-blowing Race by betcha win at Cambridge on April 4.

Leap To Fame will have “another one or two” lead-up runs before the first round of Brisbane Inter Dominion heats at Albion Park on July 5.

“I’d love to give him the week off before the series starts, so we’ll see if that means we give him another one or two runs,” Dixon said.

Leap To Fame has now won 51 of his 64 starts and banked $A4,027,330.

Earlier in the night, Dixon showed he had another young star on his hands with Fight For Victory.

The son of Bettor's Delight stormed home from near last to win the $50,000 Qbred 2YO final by an increasing 11.6m in a slick 1min53.5sec mile rate on the wet track over 1660m.

Fight For Victory looks every bit a major player for Australia’s richest juvenile race, the $500,000 Protostar at Albion Park on July 12.

But Team Dixon had to be content with a second placing for their NSW Oaks winner Cool And Classy in the Qbred 3YO Fillies’ final.

She did the work outside the heavily-backed Chantal Turpin-trained Arrive, who led throughout