KEY POINTS:
Trotting's latest superstar, Stig, will not race again this season.
The exceptional talent has a broken sesamoid bone in his off hind leg and will go under the knife today.
That means, at best, he won't race again until next spring.
The timing could hardly be worse for the five-year-old, who was to start favourite in the $150,000 Dominion Handicap at Addington tomorrow night.
Stig's trainer Paul Nairn said while the injury was only diagnosed yesterday it could have been troubling Stig all season.
"I was always worried something like this could happen to him because he has a less than perfect gait," said Nairn.
"When I first got him to train I thought there was something wrong with him and I mentioned it to Tim (Butt, former trainer) and he said not to worry about it because he had always been that way.
"It is impossible to tell how long it has been a problem and it could have been the reason he trotted roughly all along."
Stig emerged from maidens in February to win the four-year-old division of the Harness Jewels in June and returned stronger and faster this season.
He sat three wide for the entire Ashburton Flying Mile before beating Allegro Agitato last month, then trotted a near national record winning against the racing pattern at Kaikoura a week later.
That had experts like Phil Williamson, Butt and even Nairn suggesting Stig could be destined for greatness. But the first signs of a serious problem came at Addington last Friday.
That was when he galloped when about to mount what looked a winning charge in the Trotting Free-For-All.
Nairn took him to the Ashburton trials on Tuesday and he trotted his last 800m in 56.5 seconds under a hold but still didn't feel right.
"That is the problem. He is so good he can trot like that and you think he is all right.
"But when he warmed down he started to feel scratchy."
A broken sesamoid is not the worst of leg injuries for a trotter and Nairn is confident Stig will return to the track.
"I have only ever had one trotter with it before and once she recovered it never bothered her again," he said.
But the injury comes at a time when few in the trotting ranks in Australasia looked capable of matching Stig.
Ironically, the injury flared in the same trial One Over Kenny signalled her return to form with a sensational win on Tuesday.
With Stig out of her way and most of the major trotting races on her programme mobile starts, One Over Kenny has a perfect chance to dominate again this summer.
Nairn is left with one of New Zealand's more promising mares in Day Of Reckoning but admits she is hardly going to be the force Stig was.
"She is a lovely mare and worked great on Tuesday so I can see her getting some of the money with the right run," said Nairn, who has an amazing training strike rate.
"But the big fella (Stig) is so strong I really think he would have been the one to beat.
"Still, maybe he will come back an even better horse."
