The recipe is always the same. Roll to the lead, get up a head of steam up and stay there.
Tonight, he has the barrier draw (2) and the type of track, with Cambridge being 1000m and lightning-fast, to give Swayzee his shot.
“The smaller track definitely helps,” Hart told the Herald.
“That is why we have beaten him twice at Melton in the last two Hunter Cups, because he has to cover so much more ground than us on a smaller track, going around more bends.
“We also beat him at Albion Park doing the same thing, which again races a bit like Cambridge, and again it was over a longer trip which suits my horse and means Larry [Leap To Fame] has to work for longer.
“So I think this track and this draw suits better than say a mile at Menangle.”
Hart agreed with the general school of thought that Swayzee should be able to work his way to the front tonight, most likely off Captains Knock but possibly off Merlin, but says his early job is two-fold.
“Obviously, I want to stay in front of Leap To Fame early but I also want to do it without getting my horse too far out of his comfort zone.
“Some horses love running the gate and are good at it but that is not natural for Swayzee and when I really have to burn him early, it can take its toll later.
“What I like to do is get him going early and in a rhythm but not gas him to lead and if I can do that, then I can drive him to go faster and faster the further we go.”
If Hart’s early plan unfolds, then Leap To Fame will almost certainly be outside Swayzee, which raises the question: why can Swazyee deny him sometimes but not others?
“The distance and the track size are crucial but for me, most important is getting Larry off the bit.
“The times I have beaten him Grant [Dixon, driver] has been niggling at Larry at the 400m and then I know we can outlast him up the straight because not many horses can out-slog Swayzee.
“But if I look across at the 400m and Grant hasn’t really gone for him yet then we are in trouble, because that is when he beats us with his speed.
“To be honest, I will know at the 400m.”
There is of course the possibility the new kid on the block, The Janitor, could sit back, enjoying the pacing pugilism in front and swoop late but that is harder than it sounds: the three times Swayzee has led and undone Leap To Fame, the third-placegetter has come from on the marker pegs.
That also doesn’t bode well for Kingman, who produced the greatest performance by a horse to defeat Leap To Fame by sitting three wide outside him in last November’s New Zealand Cup.
Just how he finds a race-winning launch pad from the outside of the front line may be a puzzle not even his champion driver Luke McCarthy can solve.
You could dream up other winning scenarios for Captains Knock or the five Kiwis in the race, but two cold, hard facts remain for punters.
Leap To Fame is the best horse in tonight’s Race by Sport Nation.
And on the nine occasions he and Swayzee have clashed, only one horse has beaten them both home.
That was Don Hugo in last year’s Miracle Mile, when he led and sprinted too sharply.
Don Hugo isn’t in this race, this isn’t a mile and Cambridge is not Menangle.
Which means barring something bizarre the Battle of the Brothers is also the story of this race.
And Cam Hart will probably know the winner at the 400m.
Michael Guerin wrote his first nationally published racing articles while still in school and started writing about horse racing and the gambling industry for the Herald as a 20-year-old in 1990. He became the Herald’s Racing Editor in 1995 and covers the world’s biggest horse racing carnivals.
