Dixon warms up for Inter Dominion with Albion Park domination
Premier trainer Grant Dixon has more string to his bow than just champion pacer Leap To Fame heading into a huge hometown Inter Dominion Carnival.
Despite Leap To Fame having a night off, Dixon and wife, Trista, flexed their muscle with a feature treble at Albion Park last night.
Leap To Fame, who is already two-from-two this campaign, will be back to cap his Inter Dominion preparation at Albion Park next Saturday night.
Team Dixon snared the quinella in last night's feature, the Flashing Red Discretionary, when Aroda led throughout with Trista aboard to bet Charge Ahead.
Aroda's next target will be a title defence in the $106,070 Group 2 Redcliffe Cup on June 28 before the Inter Dominion starts at Albion Park a week later.
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Earlier, Dixon's exciting three-year-old Path To Greatness landed a huge plunge ($5.50 into $1.70) to lead throughout and easily win the Queensland Sun.
The win secured the gelding a start in the $350,000 Group 1 Rising Sun at Albion Park on July 5.
Path To Greatness, who boasts seven wins from just 13 starts, beat stablemate Charge Ahead to give Team Dixon another quinella.
The most exciting win of the night came from Team Dixon's recent stable addition, Captains Mistress.
The glamour Kiwi filly toyed with older rivals to win by 9.1m in a slick 1min53.1sec mile rate for 1660m.
Her major target is the Group 1 Queensland Oaks.
The one minor disappointment of the night for the stable came when prepost Queensland Derby favourite Fate Awaits had to be content with third place behind exciting Kiwi raider, Rubira, in race nine.
Rubira gave Kiwi Hall of Fame trainer Mark Purdon, who trains in partnership with son Nathan, part of a perfect start to their Queensland raid.
Earlier, their star trotter Oscar Bonavena toyed with his rivals to win and stamp himself as a major player for the Inter Dominion trotting series.
Rubira has the South-East and Redcliffe Derbys before the Group 1 Rising Sun on July 5 and the Group 1 Queensland Derby on July 19.
'It was great to get wins with them both because they needed the runs and will take improvement from them,' Nathan Purdon said.
Champion NSW trainer Luke McCarthy will launch his Queensland raid from next week after stars Don Hugo and Hesitate won impressively at Menangle last night.
Miracle Mile and Inter Dominion winner Don Hugo has easily won both starts this campaign and looms as the only serious danger to Leap To Fame in the Inter Dominion pacing series.
Hesitate is likely to head to the Queensland Derby via the Rising Sun.
'I'll have a nice team in Brisbane for a month or so,' McCarthy said.
The Queensland flavour extended to Melton last night where trainer-driver Chris Svanosio confirmed and impressive win by his US-bred trotting mare Aldebaran Acrux had booked her a trip to the Inter Dominion.
She will accompany star stablemate Arcee Phoenix, who returns from a break at Melton next Saturday night.
• Adam Hamilton is a paid contributor writing on harness racing for News Corp.
Originally published as Grant Dixon warms up for 2025 Inter Dominion with Albion Park domination
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