And that is just about the least comfortable place in the world for Leap To Fame.

While he sat parked for the last 1200m and beat Don Hugo in this race last season, Leap To Fame has a mixed record trying to eyeball Swayzee and beat him.

He did exactly that in the Miracle Mile at Menangle last month but Swayzee led and beat Leap To Fame in the Hunter Cup at Melton in February after doing exactly the same thing a year earlier.

Swayzee also led and beat Leap To Fame in the 2023 Blacks A Fake at Group 1 level at Albion Park in 2023 so if he is able to lead on Friday his life becomes easier and Leap To Fame’s becomes harder.

The reason Leap To Fame is more vulnerable than usual sitting outside Swayzee isn’t just because he can’t break him with sheer willpower. Cam Hart drives Swayzee relentlessly, pacing the sort of sectionals that make even a champion like Leap To Fame feel every centimetre of the extra ground he has to cover.

So if the bullying brothers end up trading blows again on Friday night, racing fans are in for something special and they might at least get a better price now if they want to back one of the all-time great pacers.

If the pair do undo each other, and that hasn’t been the case when they have gone to war before, then Merlin and Captains Knock look set to be the closest stalkers but both Kingman and The Janitor face having to work early or come wide later in what could be a punishing race.

While the $1m pace is set to be a drama-filled two and a half minutes, the slot trot should be dominated by Keayang Zahara both in the market and on the track.

Trotting’s glamour girl was always going to draw well as mares draw inside the boys under the race conditions but barrier two is close to perfect for her and unless something bizarre happens it is hard to envisage any other scenario than her being in front with 1600m to run.

Aiding Keayang Zahara even more, not that she really needs any help, is Queensland trotter Gus drawing the outside barrier eight, starting from seven after emergency Bounce N Beyond comes out.

That leaves him facing the unappetising prospect of having to make his own luck sitting outside Keayang Zahara for the last lap on what is shaping as a tough night to be a Queenslander.

Fields for Friday night’s two slot races at Cambridge:

RACE BY SPORT NATION

$1 million, mobile 2200m, 8.55pm

1: Captains Knock

2: Swayzee

3: Merlin

4: Republican Party

5: Sooner The Bettor (em)

6: We Walk By Faith

7: Leap To Fame

8: Kingman


9: Akuta (1 second line)

10: The Janitor

11: Better Knuckle Up

TAB TROT

$530,000, mobile 2200m, 8.25pm

1: Belle Neige

2: Keayang Zahara

3: Ya Rite Darl

4: Jilliby Ballerini

5: Bounce N Beyond (em)

6: Oscar Bonavena

7: Meant To Be

8: Gus

Michael Guerin wrote his first nationally published racing articles while still in school and started writing about horse racing and the gambling industry for the Herald as a 20-year-old in 1990. He became the Herald’s Racing Editor in 1995 and covers the world’s biggest horse racing carnivals.