Fridays don’t get much bigger than Cambridge’s Night of Champions.
Tonight’s 10-race card will get underway at 5.08pm , with the two biggest races, the $600,000 TAB Trot at 7.49pm and the $1m The Race by betcha at 8.52pm.
The night will have a strong trans-Tasman theme including The Locomotive versus Oscar Bonavena, and Leap To Fame and Don Hugo vs the likes of Merlin, Don’t Stop Dreaming and Republican Party.
Leap To Fame needs personal best performance in The Race by betcha
By Michael Guerin
The hero of harness racing is going to have to produce the best winning performance of his career to win in the $1million Race by Betcha at Cambridge tonight.
That hero is Leap To Fame, a genuine cast-iron champion, winner of 49 of his 62 starts and almost everything you could want in a pacer.
He has won most of the races that matter in Australia, shattered records and conquered hearts.
Tonight he will need to do something he hasn’t done before. He will, almost certainly, need to sit parked outside another great horse and crush him to win.
That is the accepted speed map for tonight’s 2200m slot race, that Leap To Fame from barrier seven will work forward and sit parked outside leader Don Hugo from barrier 2.
No shock in that. About the only gift Leap To Fame wasn’t given is gate speed and that coupled with a series of dreadful draws means he has done more than his share of sitting parked in our best races.
But here is the shocking, and thought-provoking, part for punters: He almost always gets beat when he does.
Larry, as he is affectionately known, has sat parked in seven races at the highest level and been beaten in five.
The only exceptions was when he won a somewhat below par Miracle Mile last year when Sooner The Better even gave him a scare late and in the 2024 Blacks A Fake when he sat parked outside the enormously inferior Hi Manameisjeff.
So how can clearly the best pacer in this part of the world get beaten so regularly when asked to race outside the leader?
Welcome to modern harness racing.
As the breed has refined, gear and tracks improved the best harness races have become punishing affairs.
Most are won by horses on the markers or, when things get crazy, swoopers. Few, very few, are won by horses sitting parked.
Leap To Fame is THE living example of that.
Examine the five times Leap To Fame has sat parked and been beaten and you find the leaders were been Swayzee (twice), Rock N Roll Doo, Catch A Wave and in last month’s Miracle Mile, Don Hugo.
So every time the champ has sat parked outside a Grand Circuit winner in a major race, he has been beaten. Every time.
That is not to say it will happen tonight and if almost any other horses was drawn to lead tonight you would be happy taking the TAB’s $2.30 quote that “Larry” could sit parked outside them and put them to the sword.
Tonight his issues are two, or maybe threefold.
If he can crush Don Hugo, no small feat, Leap To Fame could still be left a sitting duck for stalkers Merlin or Don’t Stop Dreaming, who aren’t as good as him but might not have to be.
But first he has to get past Don Hugo, a Eureka, Inter Dominion and Miracle Mile champion driven by a freak in Luke McCarthy and one who could cover 6-8 less lengths than Leap To Fame.
Don Hugo isn’t as good as Leap To Fame either but that isn’t the point.
The point is, actually the question is, do you really want to take $2.30 for a horse to do something it has only successfully achieved 28.4 per cent of the time?
Of course you do.
Because you want to see Larry win. You want to witness greatness and feel that rush.
Possibly, maybe probably, he will give that to us.
But wanting doesn’t produce winning. And very rarely, as it turns out, does sitting parked in $1million races.
LARRY’S PARKED PROBLEMS :
Leap To Fame’s record when parked out in the highest level races
March 2025: 2nd to Don Hugo in Miracle Mile
Feb 2025: 2nd to Swayzee in Hunter Cup
July 2024: 1st in Blacks A Fake, beating Swayzee.
March 2024: 1st Miracle Mile beating Sooner The Bettor.
Oct 2023: 3rd to Act Now in Victoria Cup.
Sept 2023: 2nd to Encipher in The Eureka
July 2023: 2nd to Swayzee in Blacks A Fake
Oscar Bonavena can “definitely win” – Mark Purdon
By Michael Guerin
At least Mark Purdon knows it can be done.
The genius trainer of New Zealand harness racing proves just how bad he is as being semi-retired by having runners in both slot races at Cambridge tonight: Oscar Bonavena in the $600,000 TAB Trot and Chase A Dream in the $1million Race by Betcha.
He co-trains both with son Nathan and the two horses, are different ends of their careers, face a similar challenge tonight, both expected to have to come from off the speed to run past the all-conquering Australians.
Oscar Bonavena looks likely to be midfield at best in the TAB Trot with Purdon loathe to rush him off the gate from barrier three because of his hit-and-miss mobile manners.
Chase A Dream has drawn one on the second line with the best Purdon can hope for in the pace being three deep on the markers with Don Hugo being attacked to create late gaps.
Both horses swooped to win their warm up Flying Miles last Friday and in the brief history of the big-money slot races at Cambridge, Purdon is the only driver to come from back in the field at the bell to win one.
He came from last to win the first running of the Pace with Self Assured, the subsequent two editions being won by the leader Copy That and Merlin coming out of the one-one last year.
The only running of the TAB Trot saw Just Believe sit parked last year to beat the leader, with the elite horses usually making Cambridge feel smaller than most 1000m tracks.
“I’d love to be able to use Oscar early from barrier three but I really don’t think it is the best thing to do with some of the issues he has had early in some mobile races this season,” admits Purdon.
“He is at his most potent when driven for speed so I hope they go hard early and we get a sit handy to them.
“He can definitely win because he is really well.”
Chase A Dream benefitted from a tougher training regime last week to improve dramatically but his task, and that of all the horses who get back in the Race by Betcha, is a daunting one.
Not only do they have to hope for a brutal pace to soften the leaders up but gaps on a track that rarely sees the best fields break up over 2200m and a home straight that will disappear below their hooves very quickly.
If Purdon is going to become the first driver to win two Cambridge slot races, Oscar Bonavena is by far his best chance of pulling it off.
Early tactics key in TAB Trot
By Michael Guerin
Chris Svanosio is going to do something he doesn’t want to do at the start of tonight’s $600,000 TAB Trot at Cambridge.
Because he knows if he doesn’t do it the slot race could be over as soon as it has begun for Arcee Phoenix.
The Victorian horseman, universally known an Snooze, realises he can’t be caught napping at the start of the 2200m mobile because if he is Arcee Phoenix will lose his crucial tactical advantage over fellow Aussie and likely race favourite The Locomotive.
Arcee Phoenix has drawn barrier 4 and The Locomotive barrier 6 and most expect one of the pair to lead after 400m. Whoever does becomes the horse to beat, covering less ground and able to dictate to their rivals.
So what is the problem?
“I have spent the last two years trying not to rush him off the gate,” sighs Svanosio.
“I have looked after him in most of his races early to keep him balanced and then let him work his way into the race.
“In some of those races he has still been able to work his way to the front and he is a very good front runner but he hasn’t been really buzzed off the gate.
“But if I let Brad [Hewitt, driving The Locomotive] get straight past us then that gives the advantage to him.
“So I might have to roll the dice this week, try to get him out as fast as I can and see what happens.”
While that is a key tactical admission and full of logic the richest race of a horse’s career is a tricky time to be seeking new weapons for their arsenal.
Arcee Phoenix has plenty of experience, starting in this race last year and two Group 1s at the NZ Cup meeting. He finished fourth in all three.
With the champion Just Believe retired he is one of those bidding for his crown. The price of the crown may be early balance and poise under pressure.
Whether he can pay that price could decide tonight’s race.
Even if Arcee Phoenix learns his new trick quickly Hewitt has made it clear he intends to press on, full of confidence his Inter Dominion winner will handle a dogfight into the first bend and come out the other side trotting.
With the fastest Kiwi on the front line, Muscle Mountain, drawn widest it seems certain one of the two big gun Aussies will eventually lead, wresting it off more than likely Queen Elida.
That will make the winner of the early battle the favourite to win the war but the uglier it gets inside the first 600m, with anything below 43 seconds for that opening sectional considered detrimentally fast, the better the chances of the locals.
Oscar Bonavena would love to watch an early fireworks display before putting a dampener on it later and under those circumstances he would become the horse to beat.
Bet N Win felt the biggest loser from the draw, being the only horse on the second line, but driver Bob Butt gets the chance to sum up early whether to stay on the markers and wait for gaps if the pressure get ramped up or slide into the running line if it doesn’t.
Either way, he is going to have to try adopt a new racing style to win tonight, just like Arcee Phoenix.
Whereas The Locomotive and Oscar Bonavena will just need to be themselves and the race should come to one of them.
Will “the Menangle boost” be a thing at Cambridge?
By Michael Guerin
A thing without a name could be a crucial factor in tonight’s two mega money slot races at Cambridge.
Since it is as yet un-named, we will call it the Menangle boost.
It is the boost in performance horses get after regular racing at the Menangle track outside Sydney, the hardest harness racing in this part of the world.
Menangle is like nothing else in Australasian harness racing with the searing miles and relentless style turning those who can handle it into fitter and therefore faster horses.
Since Menangle opened in 2008 a disproportionate number of Grand Circuit races have been won by the New South Wales horses who are most exposed to its rigours.
“It is definitely a factor,” says champion horseman Luke McCarthy, who has Don Hugo in tonight’s Race by Betcha.
“I notice it when I take horses who have been racing well at home [Menangle] up to the Brisbane winter carnival. They get back to the 1000m tracks and just fly around them.”
Don Hugo could do just that tonight, with all of his three career highlights being major Menangle wins and he could feel very bold whizzing around Cambridge against the marker pegs tonight.
Another Menangle regular is The Locomotive, favourite for tonight’s TAB Trot and his trainer-driver Brad Hewitt agrees with McCarthy that those who can handle Menangle thrive away from it.
“It makes them so fit because the racing is so hard,” says Hewitt.
“I was in the Inter Dominion Pacing Final with Captains Knock back in December and I have never been in a race like it. We went absolutely flat out all the way.
“It makes them better horses when they go back to normal races.”
Plenty of the best horses in tonight’s two slot races have raced at Menangle recently, with Leap To Fame, Don’t Stop Dreaming and Merlin also competing at the Miracle Mile carnival last month but the longer horses are exposed to the 1400m track the better they seem to become.
The markets suggest the Menangle boost may be a very real thing at Cambridge tonight.
