Stars of harness racing set to light up Melton

The two brightest stars of harness racing, Leap To Fame (Bettor’s Delight) and Just Believe (Orlando Vici), are set to light up Victoria’s biggest meeting, Hunter Cup, at Melton on Saturday week.

The glamour pair are both on six-race winning streaks and odds-on favourites in pre-post markets to win their respective Melton targets.

They last raced at the same meeting just over a month ago when Leap To Fame easily won the Brisbane Inter Dominion pacing final, and Just Believe toyed with his rivals in the trotting final.

Both won, with barely raising a sweat last night, at their first starts since those respective Inter Dominion victories.

Leap To Fame paced a slick 1min52.9sec mile rate for 1660m at Albion Park but did leave trainer-driver Grant Dixon wanting to run him again next Saturday night at the same track before heading down to Melbourne for the $450,000 Group 1 Hunter Cup a week later.

“I’ll nominate him again for this week. I’m keen to run, but it’ll depend if they get enough runners for the race to go ahead,” he said.

The five-year-old boasts 30 wins (and 6 seconds) from just 40 starts and has been compared with some of the sport’s all-time greats.

Leap To Fame is $1.70 favourite for the Hunter Cup with the absence of key rivals Swayzee (spelling) and Akuta (injured).

Dixon insists Leap To Fame is better than when he last raced at Melton for a brave third to Act Now in the Group 1 Victoria Cup on October 14.

“He’s got a much better grounding, and the hard racing has been good for him; he’s thrived on it,” he said.

As great as Leap To Fame is, what Just Believe has achieved in the form he’s racing in is truly remarkable.

He left Australia for a Swedish raid in the middle of last year as an Inter Dominion winner and highly regarded but has returned with all the qualities of a champion.

Driver Greg Sugars is adamant Just Believe has returned a better horse.

“I think form and, more so, the way he’s winning shows that,” he said.

“You sort of shake your head a bit at how easily he’s been winning and so often after having to do the work in his races.”

Just Believe became the first trotter in history to clean sweep – winning all three heats and the final – two successive Inter Dominion series.

Arguably, he looked even better than Brisbane when he sat parked in quick time and won as he liked in the $50,000 Group 2 Knight Pistol Trot at Ballarat last night.

Trainer Jess Tubbs will weigh up whether to run Just Believe again this week in the $50,000 Group 2 Dullard Cup or go straight to the $300,000 Great Southern Star on Hunter Cup night.

The Great Southern Star is a race of difference, with two qualifying heats early in the night and a final two hours later.

Just Believe was beaten in his heat last year but won the final as one of his first steps towards greatness.

by Adam Hamilton, for Harness Racing Australia