Star Aussie double act poised for Cup week

The “Larry and Harry” show is headed for Addington.

The two generational champions of Australian harness racing – Leap To Fame (Bettor’s Delight) and Just Believe (Orlando Vici) – now seem “locks” to tackle the riches across New Zealand Cup Week.

Leap To Fame’s trainer-driver Grant Dixon today gave the strongest push yet to say Leap To Fame will cross the ditch for the $1m IRT NZ Trotting Cup. On Saturday the superstar broke the track record at Albion Park as he dominated the Group 1 Blacks A Fake for his 41st career win. “Larry”  has now won over $3.1m in stakes.

“We’re keen,” he said, “it’s the pinnacle of harness racing in this part of the world. It looks amazing.

“I’ve never been, let alone taken a horse, but like so many others I’ve watched and heard what an incredible race day (NZ Cup) is.

“It’s likely we’ll go to the Victoria Cup (October 12 at Melton) and then work out plans how and when we get him across to NZ.

“I’d like to get him to NZ straight after the Victoria Cup. It’s likely he’d fly to Auckland out of Sydney.

“It’s too early to say dates and whether we’d give him a lead-up race over there or not.”

Just Believe’s co-trainer and driver Greg Sugars was even clearer with his star trotter.

“We’d be mad not to go with the prize money increases,” he said. “$NZ400,000 for the Dominion is terrific money.”.

“It’s likely he would run in the Free-For-All on Cup Day and the Dominion. He has shown how he thrives on racing.”

Just Believe, or “Harry” as he’s known,  hasn’t raced since completing a clean sweep of his four major targets during an NZ trip earlier this year.

His last run was a dominant win in the Group 1 Rowe Cup at Alexandra Park on May 24.

Sugars revealed there had been some interest from the US to tackle the Yonkers International Trot.

“There was, but it didn’t really amount to anything formal,” he said.

“We’ll get him ready over here and then head back to NZ and then he comes home for another go at the Inter Dominion.”

Just Believe is trying to become the first trotter to win three successive Inter Dominion titles.

This year’s Inter Dominion starts with heats at Newcastle on November 29, with the final at Menangle on December 14.

by Adam Hamilton, for Harness Racing New Zealand