Trainer John Dickie is hoping doing the right thing will pay big autumn dividends with Speeding Spur.

Dickie is adamant the five-year-old stallion still could have won the A$100,000 Australian Trotting Grand Prix on Saturday even with a slight leg bruise.

But Dickie chose to scratch him on the morning of the race, writing off the trip to Australia without a race.

“It wasn’t a major deal and nothing to do with the suspensory problems that have kept him away from the track for much of last year,” said Dickie.

“It was just so bruising caused by a trotting boot and we alerted the stewards over there to it and they passed him fit to run on Friday night.

“But when I wasn’t happy with him on Saturday morning we pulled the pin because you don’t muck around with horses that good.

“But his old injury has scanned fine three times so most importantly there is no issue there.”

Speeding Spur returns to Auckland today and Dickie will allow him to also bypass the NZ Trotting Champs at Addington to concentrate on the Anzac Cup and Rowe Cups at Alexandra Park in late April.

“He still has a lot of racing ahead of him so we will target those.”

The repeated interruptions Speeding Spur’s career have been made even harder to swallow since his arch rival Monbet has been sidelined since November and won’t return until next season.

A fully-fit Speeding Spur would be dominating an open class trotting crop lacking true class and depth, with only Marcoola at his best looking a threat.

Michael Guerin