Kingman Lucky To Be Alive After Float Bursts Into Flames

PACING sensation Kingman is lucky to be alive.

Just hours before his fighting second to champion Leap To Fame in Saturday night's epic Group 1 Cranbourne Cup, the float transporting Kingman and star stablemates Eye Keep Smiling and Steno from Shepparton to Cranbourne burst into flames.

Fortunately, just moments before, the horses had been pulled from the float on the side of the Hume Highway.

The float was engulfed in flames, completely destroyed and the Hume Highway closed to traffic.

"We're still not exactly sure what it was," Kingman's trainer-driver Luke McCarthy said.

"Nathan (Jack) and I were driving along and heard a long bang. We thought it was a puncture so pulled over and then we saw smoke coming out everywhere.

"Then I saw some flames and said to Nathan ‘quick, we've gotta get the horses out'.

"Just minutes after we got all four horses out, the whole thing went up in flames.

"I've never been involved in anything like it before and I'm sure I never will again.

"It was scary and could have been catastrophic."

McCarthy, Jack and the four horses were stranded on the side of the freeway for almost an hour.

"An old guy who lived nearby and saw the smoke, drove around to us in his big old horse float and offered to take us back to his place with the horses," he said.

"I told him they were racehorses and all racing in a few hours at Cranbourne, so he said just take the float and bring it back when you're finished with it.

"He was just amazing. I drove the float back to him today. It's the oldest float you'd see but it did the job.

"The first thing was getting the horses to a safer place than the side of a freeway and without him, we'd never have made the races in time.

"That upside of scary moments is like this is how you see the good things come out in people."

Kingman, winner of the Group 1 NZ and Victoria Cups late last year, ran a close second to champion Leap To Fame in the $150,000 Cranbourne Cup.

Eye Keep Smiling, Australia's top racemare, ran second to the emerging Captains Mistress in track record time in the Group 3 Angelique.

"You can't believe they raced, let alone ran so well, after what they'd been through," McCarthy said.

"It was confronting enough for Nathan and I, let alone the horses."

McCarthy said Kingman, which has beaten Leap To Fame in three of their five clashes, would now have a well deserved week off and skip next Saturday night's $150,000 Group 1 Kilmore Cup.

"Yes, he can go straight to the Hunter Cup in two weeks now," he said.

"That's a silver lining from a night you'd never want again. If he'd won at Cranbourne, we'd have felt compelled to go to Kilmore because he'd still be chasing the $1 million bonus.

"But now he can have this week off and I'm sure he'll be a different horse when he meets Leap To Fame again in the Hunter Cup."
Photos: https://www.racenet.com.au/news/kingman-lucky-to-be-alive-after-float-bursts-into-flames

Leap To Fame's win sets up chance to claim $1 million bonus

Champion pacer Leap To Fame may have to do what he couldn't do last year to win a $1m bonus in Saturday night's Group 1 Hunter Cup at Melton.

Mighty stayer and arch-rival Swayzee drew better in gate two and is the most likely of the big guns to find the lead.

Leap To Fame snared gate six, while new sensation Kingman has the back row (gate 10).

Swayzee's used a better draw to lead, smash the track record and beat a gallant Leap To Fame in last year's Hunter Cup.

It was the second time Swayzee had led and beaten Leap To Fame.

"He's going to have to earn it now, that's for sure," Leap To Fame's trainer-driver Grant Dixon said.

"The draw isn't perfect, but we've had more difficult ones. The way I see it, there's as many positives and negatives.

"I rate Kingman the hardest to beat and the back row isn't good for him, so that's a help, but then you've got Swayzee and Republican Party (gate one) drawn inside us.

"Republican Party is the biggest winner from the draw. As we know, especially at Melton, the fence is gold in these races and he'll be on the fence, either behind the leader or three pegs.

"We're going to have to be right at the top of our game, but all the signs are he is."

Republican Party finished a close and luckless third to Swayzee and Leap To Fame in last year's Hunter Cup and his record in NZ shows he is a better horse now.

Early markets have Leap To Fame $2.40 favourite from Swayzee ($3.60), Republican Party ($4.20) and Kingman ($4.40).

Leap To Fame is lining up for his fifth start in as many weeks, but Dixon said it suited him.

"That's where he's different to most horses, he just thrives on it and bounces out of a big race looking for the next one," he said.

"This is the third time he's had an extended stint down in Melbourne and it's by far the happiest we've been with him.

"He seems as good as this as he has all trip. He's really bright, holding his weight and eating up.

"We've just got four more days to keep him this well."

Leap To Fame's three latest wins in the Ballarat, Cranbourne and Kilmore Cups make him the only horse eligible for HRV's new $1m Summer Carnival bonus if he wins the Hunter Cup.

Victory will also give him a share of the record for Group 1 wins by Australasian pacer on 16 with former greats Westburn Grant and Lazarus.

While most expect Swayzee to take advantage of gate two and find the lead, much focus will be on what Emma Stewart's trio Oliver Dan (gate three), Miki To Success (four) and War Dan Buddy (five) – all fast beginners – do at the start.

If one or more of them crossed Swayzee early, it could aid Leap To Fame's cause.

'One of the best we've seen': Another Miracle for Leap To Fame

The Leap To Fame show isn't stopping anytime soon.

The champion Queenslander underlined why many say he's Australasia's greatest pacer of all-time with another off-the-canvas win in last night's $1 million Miracle Mile.

It was his second win (he also won in 2024) from three attempts at the iconic race and he finished a close and brave second in the other (last year).

Leap To Fame has also won two Inter Dominion finals, a Hunter Cup, a Blacks A Fake and NZ's richest slot race, the Race by betcha at Cambridge.

Co-trainer Trista Dixon confirmed the seven-year-old, who boasts an incredible 66 wins from 85 starts and 15 Group 1 wins, would return to Cambridge to defend that title on April 10.

And then it's back to Queensland to chase a third Inter Dominion title at his home track, Albion Park, in July.

That's when the huge decision will be made whether he retires to stud or racing on for another season.

"I've heard the talk about him retiring and I can honestly say we haven't made a decision," owner Kevin Seymour said. "We've agreed to stick to this plan of NZ and the Inter Dominion and then make a call.

"I think the talk has come from the fact we are putting certain things in place should we retire him, but that's simply because that all takes time and if we retire him after the Inter Dominion, the breeding season won't be far away.

"For now, all were focused on is getting him back to NZ where he produced one of the best wins of his career last year and then trying to win another Inter Dominion."

Leap To Fame is heading straight back to Queensland to spend some time in his own barn at Grant and Trista Dixon's Tambourine property outside Brisbane before the focus is on NZ.

"We'll then bring him back to Sydney (by road) and get a flight to NZ (Auckland) on Easter Saturday or Sunday," Trista Dixon said.

"That timing will give us a chance to do pretty much the same as we did with him last year when he raced so well and thrived on that trip (to Cambridge)."

As he has done so often, Leap To Fame overcame the hardest run of the race, outside leader and main danger Swayzee, and still won.

Fellow Queenslander The Janitor emerged from the pack and looked like running straight past Leap To Fame with 100m to run.

"I thought I had him when we really let down, but he dug in and kicked back," The Janitor's driver Pete McMullen said.

The Janitor will accompany Leap To Fame to Cambridge for the $NZ 1 million Race by betcha.

Defending champion Don Hugo, who stalked Leap To Fame everywhere, ran a strong third but was no match.

"He's just an out-and-out champion, one of the best we've seen," Don Hugo's trainer-driver Luke McCarthy said.

Don Hugo will be freshened-up and head to Perth for the Group 1 double – the $1.25 million Nullarbor and $300,000 Fremantle Cup – on April 17 and 24.

Joining Leap To Fame at Cambridge, to give Australia a formidable team, is freakish trotting mare Keayang Zahara.

She won a record-equalling 15th Group 1 race and took her record to 27 wins from 28 starts when she romped home in the $100,000 Hammerhead Mile.