By Adam Hamilton
The next few days will decide Leap To Fame’s IRT New Zealand Trotting Cup fate.
Trainer-driver Grant Dixon said the champion Aussie pacer “seemed to have picked up” in the couple of days since an untimely virus forced him out of the Group 1 Victoria Cup.
But owner Kevin Seymour stressed everything would need to go exactly right in the “next few days” to consider pushing ahead with a planned flight to Auckland with Leap To Fame on November 3.
“He would need to get a clean bill of health by Wednesday and be able to get to Sydney and back into full work by then for us to even consider pushing on,” Seymour said.
“Even then, you worry about trying to win a gruelling 3200m race like the NZ Cup with an interrupted campaign.”
Dixon sounded slightly more optimistic.
“We could wait another nine days or so before we have to make a final call,” he said.
“But the first step is getting the all clear that he’s over this so we can get him back into his routine.”
Leap To Fame will stay in Melbourne until Dixon is sure he has fully recovered.
“Then Grant will float him to Robbie Morris’ place in Sydney and we can make plans from there,” Seymour said.
Should connections press ahead with NZ plans, there are weekly racing options at Menangle, starting with next Saturday night’s Kevin Robinson free-for-all (1609m).
That will likely come too soon, so the logical race is the Battle Of Beersheba free-for-all over a more suitable 2300m at Menangle on October 26.
“I’ve had Mark Jones telling me he could also go to the Cup Trial at Addington the week before the Cup,” Seymour said.
“If we don’t go, he could settle at Robbie’s place for a while because we’ve got some other horses there, and then go back home to prepare for the Inter Dominion.”
The Sydney Inter Dominion starts with heats at Newcastle on November 29.
It then moves to Bathurst (December 4) before heading to Menangle for the last round of heats on December 7 and the $500,000 final on December 14.
