Leap To Fame bags third successive Grand Circuit title

THE great Leap To Fame (Bettor’s Delight) has become just the fourth horse to win three successive Grand Circuit champion crowns.

The Queensland-based six-year-old joined some huge names in doing so. Gammalite was the first to do it from 1982-84, then Westburn Grant repeated the amazing feat from 1990-92.

Most recently, triple Miracle Mile winner King Of Swing also won three successive Grand Circuit champion titles from 2020-22.

Although the challengers came at Leap To Fame this season, his enormous second placing in last Saturday night’s $250,000 Group 1 Blacks A Fake at Albion Park gave him a comfortable win.’

He earned 60 points for the second to finish 2025 on 320 points, well clear of Don Hugo, who beat him twice, on 230 points.

Third place could still change with the last leg of this year’s Grand Circuit, the $450,000 WA Pacing Cup to be run at Gloucester Park on Friday night.

Leap To Fame contested five of the seven Grand Circuit legs this year with his only win coming in the Brisbane Inter Dominion final. He was second in the Hunter Cup, second in the Miracle Mile, third in the Victoria Cup and second in the Blacks A Fake.

Don Hugo earned the bulk of his points from wins over Leap To Fame in the Miracle Mile and Blacks A Fake. He also ran fifth in the Hunter Cup and fourth in the Inter Dominion final.

Leap To Fame will race on next year, but his quest for an unprecedented fourth successive Grand Circuit crown will be seriously challenged by the strongest batch of open-class Aussie pacers in many years, headed by Kingman, Don Hugo, Swayzee, Minstrel, Mister Smartee and the emerging The Janitor.

by Adam Hamilton, for Harness Racing Australia