Danny McGuire notched a new Tetley's Super League record to strengthen Leeds' hold on top spot in the table.

The Rhinos stand-off took his tally to 29 tries for the season to break Paul Newlove's existing record set in 1996 when the international centre was at St Helens.

And with seven games remaining of the regular season McGuire has a golden chance to set a record that will take some beating in the future.

Wakefield battled hard throughout and led for a brief period in the first half. But once Leeds hit their stride there was no way back for a Wildcats side that have now lost 12 games in a row to the Rhinos.

Leeds put the visitors under tremendous pressure in the opening minutes but Wakefield held firm.

Twice winger Michael Wainwright saved his side by first hauling Ali Lautiiti down with a ferocious tackle and then kicking a Chris McKenna grubber kick dead.

The Rhinos' pressure finally paid off, however, in the 14th minute when giant prop Danny Ward barged his way over from 10 yards out to chalk up his first try of the season.

The travelling Wakefield fans were unhappy due to the try coming directly from a penalty awarded when McGuire was adjudged by referee Steve Ganson to have been tackled without the ball while trying to claim a pass from Willie Poching.

Wakefield hit back within two minutes through a clever piece of thinking from scrum-half Ben Jeffries. With the Leeds defence out of position, his grubber kick from 20 yards out allowed scrum- half Jamie Rooney to race through and pounce on the ball to score.

Rooney then turned provider on 27 minutes with his pass allowing winger Martin Wainwright to touch down in the corner and put Wakefield 10-6 ahead.

Rooney missed the resulting touchline conversion so when Leeds replied within 60 seconds through Poching it meant the two points added by Kevin Sinfield put Leeds back in front.

And the moment a bumper Headingley crowd had been waiting for arrived on 32 minutes when slick handling by Marcus Bai and Keith Senior created an opening for Richie Mathers.

The full-back then took the ball to within a yard of the Wildcats' line before flicking it to McGuire and allowing the stand-off to touch down his record-breaking 29th try of the season.

The Rhinos' dominance continued after the break with two quick-fire tries. Matt Diskin's grubber kick caught the Wildcats defence out and Poching reacted quickest to pounce and notch his second try of the afternoon.

Slick handling from the Rhinos opened Wakefield up once again down the middle as Sinfield sent Rob Burrow over under the posts.

Tries by Wakefield's David Solomona and Jason Demetriou cut the deficit to 10 points only for Leeds to hit back on 57 minutes when McGuire sent Senior over.

Chris McKenna added the Rhinos' seventh try on the hour before a late touchdown by Burrow underlined the home side's dominance.

Wakefield grabbed late consolations through Jeffries and Demetriou, with the latter's being a wonderful individual effort.

Intercepting a pass from Senior, the Wakefield centre raced 90 metres and held off the challenge of McGuire before scoring in the corner.