Faster and Bigger than Ever

[Gammalite]

The Monsters of the sport All strutting there stuff in incredible style tonight.

1/ Leap To Fame powers home in Kilmore Cup to defeat NZ best horse Republican Party in a great battle. Carter mixing it hard with the locals at the first corner 🤣👍😂

2/ 18 year old Jye Coney drives 4 winners at Menangle including the FFA driving Grimsons 'HI MANAMEISJEFF ' to a narrow victory over hot favourite, the current Miracle Mile champion Don Hugo in around 1.49. low flying. they bolt 5 lengths clear of the others.  

3/ No room for former NZ horse 'The FALCON' at Grimsons so he sent him to Albion , where Pete McMullen wins the FFA in 1.51 with him for owners 'Grim' and 'Boots'

4/ NZ feature trot winning GUS for Pete,  resumes off 40m handicap and donkeylicks them and is near best trotter in Australasia now.

5/ Pete gets a treble with former NZer FRANCO NEL , from the deep South of New Zealand. now open class winning 12 of 15 at Brisvegas past few months,  and running 1.50 tonight winning by over 3 lengths. watch for him in some features shortly . (a 4 year-old by Vincent ) another ripper.

6/ Ex-pat kiwi Kyle Marshall wins training the Kilmore Popular Alm FFA sprint with SMOKEN ACE , an NZ bred he part owns and driven by Gun J.Herbertson in 1.52.5

some great performances from some great horses.!!!

More to come with the 2026 Hunter Cup and Great Southern Star for trotters next week . bring it on !! 🏆🍻

  

 

[paleface adios]

10 hours ago, Gammalite said:

The Monsters of the sport All strutting there stuff in incredible style tonight.

1/ Leap To Fame powers home in Kilmore Cup to defeat NZ best horse Republican Party in a great battle. Carter mixing it hard with the locals at the first corner 🤣👍😂

2/ 18 year old Jye Coney drives 4 winners at Menangle including the FFA driving Grimsons 'HI MANAMEISJEFF ' to a narrow victory over hot favourite, the current Miracle Mile champion Don Hugo in around 1.49. low flying. they bolt 5 lengths clear of the others.  

3/ No room for former NZ horse 'The FALCON' at Grimsons so he sent him to Albion , where Pete McMullen wins the FFA in 1.51 with him for owners 'Grim' and 'Boots'

4/ NZ feature trot winning GUS for Pete,  resumes off 40m handicap and donkeylicks them and is near best trotter in Australasia now.

5/ Pete gets a treble with former NZer FRANCO NEL , from the deep South of New Zealand. now open class winning 12 of 15 at Brisvegas past few months,  and running 1.50 tonight winning by over 3 lengths. watch for him in some features shortly . (a 4 year-old by Vincent ) another ripper.

6/ Ex-pat kiwi Kyle Marshall wins training the Kilmore Popular Alm FFA sprint with SMOKEN ACE , an NZ bred he part owns and driven by Gun J.Herbertson in 1.52.5

some great performances from some great horses.!!!

More to come with the 2026 Hunter Cup and Great Southern Star for trotters next week . bring it on !! 🏆🍻

  

 

Plus fugitive 

[the galah]

10 hours ago, Gammalite said:

The Monsters of the sport All strutting there stuff in incredible style tonight.

1/ Leap To Fame powers home in Kilmore Cup to defeat NZ best horse Republican Party in a great battle. Carter mixing it hard with the locals at the first corner 🤣👍😂

2/ 18 year old Jye Coney drives 4 winners at Menangle including the FFA driving Grimsons 'HI MANAMEISJEFF ' to a narrow victory over hot favourite, the current Miracle Mile champion Don Hugo in around 1.49. low flying. they bolt 5 lengths clear of the others.  

3/ No room for former NZ horse 'The FALCON' at Grimsons so he sent him to Albion , where Pete McMullen wins the FFA in 1.51 with him for owners 'Grim' and 'Boots'

4/ NZ feature trot winning GUS for Pete,  resumes off 40m handicap and donkeylicks them and is near best trotter in Australasia now.

5/ Pete gets a treble with former NZer FRANCO NEL , from the deep South of New Zealand. now open class winning 12 of 15 at Brisvegas past few months,  and running 1.50 tonight winning by over 3 lengths. watch for him in some features shortly . (a 4 year-old by Vincent ) another ripper.

6/ Ex-pat kiwi Kyle Marshall wins training the Kilmore Popular Alm FFA sprint with SMOKEN ACE , an NZ bred he part owns and driven by Gun J.Herbertson in 1.52.5

some great performances from some great horses.!!!

More to come with the 2026 Hunter Cup and Great Southern Star for trotters next week . bring it on !! 🏆🍻

  

 

leap to fame didn't have the foot down all the way last night.

Dixon happy to treat the race more as a training run with $85,000 to add to his kitty.

republican party went a nice race for 2nd but did get the perfect run and never looked like getting past leap to fame. Still 2nd to a champ like that pretty good.

C dalgety, quite indecisive early and checked a couple of others and copped a suspension.

Probably lucky the horse that got checked badly ,managed to stay pacing,obviously it was good on its feet.

i still think the hunter cup will come down to draws. Swayzee still can win if he draws inside leap to fame.Kingman possibly as well.

leap to fame chasing a $1m bonus.

whoever the insurer is of that bonus can't be too clever,ever if leap to fame wasn't to win it. Still ,hopefully leap to fame can win it while it exists.

mynameisjeff is very,very fast. don hugo set it up for a sprint home and was very good as well,but the other horse just too fast. mynameisjeff would have beaten any horse in australasia in a race that developed into a similar sprint up the straight the way he went.He needs a big track though.

Edited Saturday at 10:00 PM by the galah

[Gammalite]

13 minutes ago, the galah said:

i still think the hunter cup will come down to draws. Swayzee still can win if he draws inside leap to fame.Kingman possibly as well.

Swayzee won ok last year Hunter Cup 2025 from the bad draw . just kept pressing forward early and took over from the 2 kiwis after half a lap. you can win from any draw if you drive them to do it lol 🤣💪😉

The 2 New Zealand horses were Very close at the end too.

LEAP TO FAME was sitting one -one getting a great run behind another Interdominion winner in Don Hugo and decided to go around it and sit parked ? one of those times he should of held position I think as the Don would of carted him up nicely for another lap.

Still it was one of the Greatest races ever.Carter was cruising 3 back the fence and couldn't get a go at them.🙄

Great driving Cam Hart though. was like his NZ Cup efforts. 

Here's the video !! enjoy one of the Greatest Events we have . a year on already ? that was quick lol 😎

 

 

[Withadream2]

On 2/8/2026 at 10:58 AM, the galah said:

whoever the insurer is of that bonus can't be too clever

Was thinking that myself. Didn’t Swayzee win a decent portion of that last year or the year before?.  Must be a massive premium HRV pay for the insurance on that. 

[Gammalite]

13 minutes ago, Withadream2 said:

Was thinking that myself. Didn’t Swayzee win a decent portion of that last year or the year before?.  Must be a massive premium HRV pay for the insurance on that. 

Swayzee was in his homestate NSW trying to win the Carnival of Cups last season. worth a $Million for 5 wins.

He picked up $1/2  million as won 4 of them at Parkes, Young, Tamworth and Penrith , but was defeated by 'Captain Hammerhead' at Albury in the Murray Cup,  to deny him the full amount of 1mill.

I'm sure the clubs would of all shared the insurance Premium against anyone achieving that huge feat, between them.

The Carnival of Cups co-exists with huge shows and Music acts on the same weekend in those towns , when large amounts of people are in town. Aus has mountains of 'Grey Nomads' lol 🤣

I think you're right,  that the HRV (Harness racing Victoris) who are struggling Big-time financially, shouldn't be running any Cups bonus at all . Especially in Big races where the winner is getting decent Cheques anyway . ( and is usually Leap To Fame lol 😁💰)

 

[the galah]

4 hours ago, Withadream2 said:

Was thinking that myself. Didn’t Swayzee win a decent portion of that last year or the year before?.  Must be a massive premium HRV pay for the insurance on that. 

i believe swayzee won half a million last year in bonuses for winning 4 of the 5 nsw  country cups. He missed out on the full million when  beaten by captain hammerhead in the final cup race.

this year i believe captains knock has won the first 3 legs and earned a $250,000 bonus already and if he wins the last 2 legs can win a million.Hes won the wagga,newcastle and bathurst cups so far.

the victorian bonus i believe is for any horse who can win 4 of the 6 victorian cups races and one of those wins must include the hunter cup.

kingman won the first,then bulletproof boy won the second beating the likes of kingman and himynameisjeff then leap to fame has won the next 3 so he is in with a shot at the milllion dollar bonus.

i don't know,but i would guess nsw managed to arrange an insurance company to sign some 3 year deal to pay the bonuses and would guess their premium wasn't too over the top.The insurance company obviously made a terrible decision to take it on and no doubt the success of swayzee and now captains knock will mean any insurance company would have to be crazy to do that again on the same terms.Still who really worries whether the insurance compnay m,ade a poor decision,apart from them..

as to victoria. well since they announced the bonus only last year,after swayzee won his half million,you would guess the premium they paid would have been much more.

it seems the focus on both sides of the tasman is to look after the high end horses and the owners who are already mega rich are certainly reaping the rewards.Theres never been a better time to be an owner of an elite harness racehorse in australia.

reading the victorian annual report the 2024/2025 season saw them only lose $11.6m after losing $25m the year before.Because the victorian governmant bailed them out so they could stay solvent to the tune of $13.4 m,hrv was able to return a profit of 1.4m but was told by govt they were expected to live withing their means from now on.the govt funding was the final part of a deal worked out in 2023.There was significant savings with staff cuts,stakes cuts(10m less than paid out the year before) ,bonuses cuts,no new projects,cuts to develpment fund,cuts to marketing, to achieve the improved,if you can call it that,result.Turnover was down 8% but so was the number of races so turnover about the same per race as the year before.wagering on all racing is down over there.

other indicators were 3282 (3652)..the figure in brackets being the year ,drivers 475 (529),trainers 896 (939) stablehands 857 (922),sires 34 (52),foals 1306 (1396),namings 953 (1044),services 2521 (2855). the end of a distribution deal from turnover with tabcorp saw a $12m drop in income from that source.

i don't know how the recent deal they did with the governmant changes things where the govt took there spare land in exzxchznge for wiping hrv debt to the government.

you know,you read the above figures from the annual report and you would get the impression ,things have got so much worse over there.

But then you read what the current administrators and some higher profile trainers are saying and they will tell you things are on the up.Gee,how bad must they have thought things had become,because all data in that reprort from august last year don't indicate things a going too good.

My impression would be,they all must jhave thought harness racing was stuffed but because of the government riding in and taking their main asset and giving them a final part of their bail out,that things havre gone from disaster to ,hey just bad.Hence,it can be said things have got better.

Edited 7 hours ago by the galah

[the galah]

8 minutes ago, the galah said:

 

other indicators were 3282 (3652)..the figure in brackets being the year ,drivers 475 (529),trainers 896 (939) stablehands 857 (922),sires 34 (52),foals 1306 (1396),namings 953 (1044),services 2521 (2855). the end of a distribution deal from turnover with tabcorp saw a $12m drop in income from that source.

 

 

that should have read the figures in brackets were from the year before for Harness racing victoria. 

[the galah]

4 hours ago, Gammalite said:

Swayzee was in his homestate NSW trying to win the Carnival of Cups last season. worth a $Million for 5 wins.

He picked up $1/2  million as won 4 of them at Parkes, Young, Tamworth and Penrith , but was defeated by 'Captain Hammerhead' at Albury in the Murray Cup,  to deny him the full amount of 1mill.

I'm sure the clubs would of all shared the insurance Premium against anyone achieving that huge feat, between them.

The Carnival of Cups co-exists with huge shows and Music acts on the same weekend in those towns , when large amounts of people are in town. Aus has mountains of 'Grey Nomads' lol 🤣

I think you're right,  that the HRV (Harness racing Victoris) who are struggling Big-time financially, shouldn't be running any Cups bonus at all . Especially in Big races where the winner is getting decent Cheques anyway . ( and is usually Leap To Fame lol 😁💰)

 

hadn't realised you had answered that already gamma before i posted.

that captain hammerhead race was a really great contest last year.

the draws for this years hunter cup will be a major factor i think.

amazing grimson has been able to get swayzee to be going so good again. 

the recent nz horses he has got,rakero rocket and captains mistress,were both very good but have  improved since grimson got them. Obviously he makes previous trainers look like amateurs the way he gets them to run..

my wife said she thought they said on box seat pinseeker may head over there for a bit. if they gave him to grimson that would be another horse that could beat leap to fame at menagle over a mile.

Edited 6 hours ago by the galah

[Gammalite]

5 hours ago, the galah said:

my wife said she thought they said on box seat pinseeker may head over there for a bit. if they gave him to grimson that would be another horse that could beat leap to fame at menagle over a mile.

Pinseeker already popped into Menangle for one race old mate. A win last June. only in 1.52 though. Another NZer ran 2n actually with Bob Butt driving . 'Better than Cash'. still NZ owned I think.

BetterThanCash has won 3 races since then,  with Cam Hart and Will Rixon driving from his 8 Menangle starts.  2 x 1.50 wins included.

But was 'Shredded ' like wheat trying to take on our BIG guns at Albion Park . 0 placings from 6 attempts.  

the last 2 runs for BetterThanCash At the Beginning of Summer (early Dec)  he was 10 lengths behind Hi MaNameisJeff and The Janitor in the 'Sunshine Sprint' mile in 1.49 and a week later 7 lengths behind Don Hugo, Leap To Fame and The Janitor. who were all in the photo finish for first. the 'Cash' horse NOT sighted since. probably blew a gasket or something ? 🤣🤣😋 Pinseeker likely to get the same treatment (of a flogging) from our locals too lol 😉💪

we go faster and Bigger at Brisbane than Menangle does these days days Mr Galah. it's just scary how quick. we had a 1.50 winning 2 yearold recently even. 🙄  

5 hours ago, the galah said:

the recent nz horses he has got,rakero rocket and captains mistress,were both very good but have  improved since grimson got them. Obviously he makes previous trainers look like amateurs

Captains Mistress going super fast now. Has a Mortgage on the Big Group 1 Mares races on very soon . some are worth over $200k.  But in fairness to Nathan Williamson in NZ , the previous trainer. He had her going super too and was going to win the Group 1 at Auckland , before the sulky' fell to bits and he got hurt. So he's no amateur . 

Edited 1 hour ago by Gammalite