The picturesque South Bay Racecourse in Kaikoura looks like being the next public outing for reigning Trotter of the Year, Speeding Spur.
He will tackle the $30,000 South Bay Trotters Cup on October 29, 15 days before his Group 1 assignments at Addington during Cup Week.
“I’ve never been to the Kaikoura meeting, and neither has Dad,” said the horse’s regular driver Josh Dickie, who also trains him in partnership with father, John.
“That’s probably another reason we chose Kaikoura over Labour Weekend at Ashburton.
“It’s six of one, half a dozen the other.
“We just thought Kaikoura worked out a bit better from a timing perspective heading in to the two big races at Addington.”
The uncambered Kaikoura track isn’t suited to all horses, but Dickie is confident Speeding Spur will take to it like a duck to water.
“We aren’t worried about the track; he gets around our track at home pretty good.”
Speeding Spur ran third on mile night at Alexandra Park ten days ago, taking rapid ground off Temporale and Lemond late in the piece.
With two runs under the belt, the Dickies are happy to keep him ticking over before Kaikoura.
“I thought it was a great run last time. We were wrapped with our fella, really.
“He still needed the run and it wasn’t a genuinely run mile, but he was really pleasing that last 100 metres.
“Going forward we’re really happy and I dare say our fella is the best he’s been for quite some time.”
Temporale and Lemond go around again this week at Alexandra Park off 40 metres but that wasn’t an option for Speeding Spur, according to Dickie.
“We weren’t keen on this week. Being off a big handicap over 2200 metres wasn’t going to be ideal so we flagged that as an option.
“We’re pretty keen to give him a good workout at home next week and then he will fly south on Labour Day (October 22).”
Speeding Spur is currently an $8.50 third favourite behind Monbet and Harriet Of Mot for the $300,000 Dominion Handicap on November 16, three days after he will contest the $100,000 NZ Trotting FFA on New Zealand Cup Day.
“Our plan is to race him in both,” said Dickie.
“He’s the sort of horse that isn’t worried by the short back-up.”
After that, the returning Trotters Inter Dominion Series in Melbourne from December 1-15 is firmly on the cards.
“Only bad luck will stop him from going. We are very keen to get there.
“It’s a prestige race and we’d love to win it with him even though the stakes are a little but small.”
Beyond that, a summer campaign in Victoria was an unconfirmed possibility, but seemingly more likely than a return to New Zealand for Christmas-New Year features, Dickie said.
