Horse racing: Leap To Fame aiming to achieve first for a pacer at Menangle

Australia’s latest pacing star Leap To Fame.

If Leap To Fame is to achieve what no pacer has ever done before, he has picked the right Miracle Mile to try it.

Australasia’s best pacer will attempt to win tomorrow’s A$1 million sprint at Menangle from barrier 7, which no horse has done and only one horse, Spankem, has won it from barrier 6 since the Miracle Mile moved to Menangle and therefore eight starters in 2009.

Nobody doubts Leap To Fame is the best horse in a field that contains Kiwi pacers Don’t Stop Dreaming and Sooner The Better, but with a 1:48 or even faster mile on the cards tomorrow night, he faces a mammoth task.

Because of his lack of gate speed, Leap To Fame has almost no chance of leading so faces potentially sitting parked outside Hi Manameisjeff, who is unbeaten in nine starts at Menangle including pacing three sub-1:49 miles.

While he will be attempting to do what greats like Blacks A Fake and Lazarus couldn’t do by overcoming barrier 7, Leap To Fame finds himself in a rare Miracle Mile: one without any other Grand Circuit winners.

While horses like Spirit Of St Louis have been placegetters at the highest level and the four-year-olds Frankie Ferocious and Don’t Stop Dreaming should one day win elite open-class races, the fact is none of them have a “major” next to their name.

Leap To Fame is an Inter Dominion and Hunter Cup winner, admittedly when he led in both races, but he will go very close to winning no matter how hard a run he has tomorrow and is then expected to come to Cambridge for the $1 million Race by Grins on April 12.

New Zealand’s best chance of a Group 1 tomorrow night is We Walk By Faith in the A$200,000 NSW Derby but his barrier 1 is less than ideal at the tricky 2400m mobile start point.