Speed queen versus the king of pacing in today’s NZ Free-For-All

R12, 6.18pm: Hill Lee
and Scott NZ Pacing Free-For-All (G1), $150,000, 1980m mobile


Three days after one of the greatest wins in New Zealand racing history, champion pacer Leap To Fame will attempt to do something more difficult at Addington today.

Not harder, just more difficult.

The magnificent Queensland pacer sat parked for the last two laps of Tuesday’s $800,000 Go Media New Zealand Cup and crushed leader Swayzee, before holding off Marketplace.

It was a win of heart, old-fashioned courage and guts. Pacing’s version of coming out on top in a cage fight.

But in today’s $150,000 Hill Lee And Scott NZ Pacing Free-For-All, he will have to try to outsprint a horse who is point-blank faster than him – Captains Mistress.

So the task won’t be as hard or physically demanding as his New Zealand Cup victory, it will be more difficult because Captains Mistress has every single thing in her favour.

The former New Zealand mare has gone supersonic since joining the Jason Grimson stable at the start of this year and beat Leap To Fame in the Inter Dominion in July.

On that occasion she led, went quick enough to keep Leap To Fame from eyeballing her every time he wanted to outstay her, and then established enough of a break when she kicked at the 400m that even Leap To Fame couldn’t claw her back.

Expect those tactics today but with one difference: Addington is bigger and has a longer straight than Albion Park, where Captains Mistress claimed the Inter.

To have Leap To Fame sitting parked will therefore be less of a disadvantage and the longer straight means speed isn’t the most powerful weapon, as stamina will come into play.

“We are really happy with how Larry [Leap To Fame] came through Tuesday but this is a tricky race, especially drawn one on the second line,” trainer-driver Grant Dixon admits.

“We are probably going to have to sit parked again and she [Captains Mistress] is very fast so getting to her is difficult in itself.

“If the race pans out that way then it is going to be tricky getting up to her and then past her.”

So much so that Captains Mistress opened as the $1.50 favourite from barrier 6, and has moved into barrier 5, compared with Leap To Fame’s price of $2.30 as the sole runner on the second line.

Leap To Fame has drawn behind old arch-rival Swayzee, who is not a fast beginner but Dixon should be able to pull the right rein at the start and slide on to the back of fast beginner The Lazarus Effect, drawn barrier 2.

That could see him potentially end up midfield out, reducing the amount of petrol he uses to get to the parked-out position.

Then the race may come down to whether he can look Captains Mistress in the eye and intimidate her or whether her driver Cam Hart keeps on and off the gas to control the margin between the pair.

Captains Mistress also has the advantage of not having contested Tuesday’s Cup and brings fresh, fast legs to today’s Group 1.

It may take more than gate speed and fancy tactics to undo another Queenslander today, as Gus will be red-hot to win the $100,000 Azap Electrical NZ Trotting Free-For-All.

He overcame an early standing start gallop to win the Dominion on Tuesday and his second-line starting position in today’s mobile 1980m is almost perfect, giving him time to settle then launch.

His task today has been made even easier with Dominion runner-up Higher Power being scratched yesterday, leaving Habibti Pat as the most obvious danger.

But Gus has become so dominant that even if Habibti Pat led, she would concede that role to him if he comes charging with intent inside the first lap, and he should complete the Group 1 double he won last year.

Northern harness stables get their best chances in New Zealand Cup Week Group 1s when Duke of Bourbon (R7, No 9) starts favourite in the Sires’ Stakes Juvenile Trot, while Belle Biddy (R11, No 1) is favourite for the Dunstan Sires’ Stakes Fillies Final.

She has the ace draw and trainer-driver Tony Herlihy has declared he will stay in front with the high-class filly, a rare admission of driving tactics pre-race from New Zealand’s all-time most successful driver.

“She loved it when she led and won the Group 1 at Alexandra Park and she has thrived since she got down here,” says Herlihy.

“The way she worked today she will be leading and staying there because I want to take bad luck out of play.”

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.

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