Leap To Fame with Grant Dixon
CHAMPION jockey Glen Boss knows exactly how Grant Dixon feels going into Saturday night’s $1 million Ladbrokes Inter Dominion final at Albion Park.
Boss, who can’t wait to be trackside for the race, famously won three successive Melbourne Cups on the great Makybe Diva and Dixon is aiming for his third Inter Dominion title with the amazing Leap To Fame.
“It’s all about the horse,” Boss said. “I saw Grant interviewed the other day and it really struck a chord when he said he just didn’t want to let Leap To Fame down. That’s how you feel, it’s exactly what I felt going into that third with the Diva.
“You just get so close to them and you’re in awe of how good they are. You feel the pressure to do your bit, to do everything you can so they can show their best.”
Boss has been captivated by the build-up to Saturday night’s clash between Leap To Fame and wonder mare Captains Mistress.
“Everyone is saying it’s the champ’s biggest challenge yet. It sounds a bit like that Cox Plate with Diva,” he said.
“I’ve watched that mare (Captains Mistress) and she’s amazing. She’s fast. Has there been a faster pacer in Australia? I haven’t seen one.
“We know hos strong Leap To Fame is, he’s shown it time after time in the big races, but has he faced a rival this fast or this good? I guess we’ll find out.
“And of course, he’s got that bad barrier now, too. It all adds up for Grant. The expectation from the public is enormous. Leap To Fame’s a people horse just like Diva was.
“The pressure on Grant will feel enormous. He’s going to have to produce the perfect drive. Turn the race into a staying test to suit how strong Leap To Fame is, but he’s also got to think about the snipers coming at him late.
“It’s going to be a hell of a race.”
Boss likened the emergence of Captains Mistress and enormity of her challenge against an all-time great like Leap To Fame to a three-year-old filly trying to win the Cox Plate.
It’s a perfect comparison.
Surround in 1976 is the only three-year-old filly to win the Cox Plate and only one four-year-old mare has won the Inter Dominion final in its 90-year history. That was Jodie’s Babe in 1989.
“I see Leap To Fame has been racing at the top level for five years and Captains Mistress hadn’t even raced when he won his first Inter Dominion (December, 2023),” Boss said.
“He’s had to fend of challenger after challenger and now this mare comes along, almost half his age and so damn fast.
“Yes, it might be his biggest challenge, but that’s what makes a champion, that ability to defy the odds, to do things they shouldn’t be able to do, or that people think they can’t.
“That’s what we got this weekend, the chance for a champion to do champion things. I can’t wait for it.”
PHOTO: Stuart McCormick
