By Adam Hamilton
Jason Grimson is throwing all his stable might at trying to beat local champion Leap To Fame for a second successive year in the $400,000 Group 1 Blacks A Fake.
Along with defending champion Swayzee, Grimson said he also planned to run District Attorney, Himanameisjeff, Nerano and Hector in next Saturday night’s Albion Park feature.
Four, if not all five, should safely make the field.
Swayzee had Saturday night off, not being suited to the 1660m of the Sunshine Sprint won by Leap To Fame, but District Attorney (second), Himanameisjeff (third) and Nerano (fourth) all ran fantastic races.
Even Hector’s eighth placing was better than it reads given he got back to last and clocked some sparkling late sectional times.
Grimson concedes beating Leap To Fame will be harder than last year.
“I think he’s a lot better horse this year than last year,” he said.
“He’s a lot stronger and I think he’s a bit faster, too.
“With Swayzee, we’re going to need to draw the front and hope Leap To Fame is off the back.”
Grimson knows Swayzee will be a lot better than when he was easily beaten by Leap To Fame in the Mr Feelgood the previous Saturday.
“He needed that run the other day. He was quite fat and hadn’t raced for three weeks,” he said.
“We’ve stuck a bit of work into him and hopefully we can give Leap To Fame another challenge this week.”
Swayzee beat Leap To Fame in last year’s Blacks A Fake, but the former has comprehensively won their two clashes since.
Grimson will skip the Blacks A Fake with his Chariots Of Fire winner Frankie Ferocious and tackle the 4YO Championship instead.
Frankie Ferocious will be looking for a return to form after everything has gone wrong in his two Albion Park runs this campaign.
He over raced badly when a tiring ninth in on July 6, then settled well back and copped a flat tyre very early in the race when 11th in the Group 1 Rising Sun last Saturday week.
Frankie Ferocious was a long-time TAB Eureka favourite before the two Albion Park runs.