Stig, winner of the Dominion Handicap on Friday night, will be spelled for up to a month.
"He will have a break of three or four weeks and return for races in the late summer with his main aim the Rowe Cup," Paul Nairn, his Leeston trainer, said.
The gelding will undergo minor surgery in the next 10 days to have a stitch removed from his off hind fetlock.
The stitch is a legacy of surgery he underwent last season for a fractured sesamoid. The stitch was supposed to dissolve. He was away from racing for 11 months until October as the result of the injury.
Nairn was unsure if Stig would be on hand for a $100,000 free-for-all for trotters at Addington on January 3. It is an additional premier meeting for the New Zealand Metropolitan Trotting Club and will be run in daytime. There is also a $100,000 ffa for pacers on the programme.
It was the second Dominion Handicap win for Nairn and driver David Butt, who were successful with Call Me Now in 1995. Call Me Now was unplaced in the Rowe Cup that season after finishing second to So Long Eden the previous year. Nairn trained and drove Inspire to win the 2006 Rowe Cup.
Call Me Now headed to Auckland the month after his Dominion Handicap win. He added the NZ National Trot, the Flying Mile at Cambridge and a 3200m race from a 55m handicap at Alexandra Park to his record as an 8yr-old that season. He won the Interdominion Final at Addington in March, 1995.
Stig is by Armbro Invasion from Naraya, a half-sister by Gekoj to Nakura, the dam of Take A Moment, winner of the Dominion Handicap in 2001, 2002 (dead-heat with Martina H) and 2003. Tim Butt, the trainer of Take A Moment, is a part-owner of Stig.
• Tracee Sherborne had her first win as a trainer at Invercargill on Saturday with Regal Hawk.
Sherborne is a licensed junior driver employed by Tisbury trainer Tom Kilkelly and training Regal Hawk is a sideline.
She took over Regal Hawk this season after the Falcon Seelster mare had been placed in five of her 10 starts in the Auckland area. Regal Hawk has also been placed in four of her six starts for Sherborne.
• Fred Service had his first win as a reinsman when he drove The Lout in the maiden trot at Invercargill.
Service took over the training of The Lout 12 months ago. The 9yr-old had his other win as a pacer at Gore four years ago when the OK Bye gelding was trained by Jack Lynch.
