The first of the Group 1 races at tonights big harness racing meeting at Alexandra Park was the $80,000 Northern Trotting Derby which looked a two horse race on paper and for once that's how it played out.
Habibti Ivy and Blair Orange led early as expected before handing up to the warm favourite, Speeding Spur with co-trainer Joshua Dickie in the bike.
The main danger to Speeding Spur in Monbet with Ricky May in the bike settled into the one by one early on the back of the smart Prince Fearless and that was the running order up front for the first lap.
With just over a lap to go Arya and Mark Purdon worked around to the death seat, forcing Monbet back a further place to three back in the running line.
Speeding Spur really upped the ante down the back and the first horse to feel the pinch was Prince Fearless who started to struggle to hold Arya's back which forced Monbet and Ricky May to come out three wide.
Speeding Spur really upped the ante on the corner and straightened four lengths clear with Monbet and Arya still finishing on.
Late in the piece Monbet took a lot of ground off Speeding Spur but the son of Pegasus Spur was never in any danger of being beaten.
Arya never gave up and stuck on well for third in front of Prince Fearless who kept whacking away to finish fourth.
Speeding Spur trotted the 2700 metres in 3:25.4, a mile rate of 2:02.4 with closing sectionals of 56.3 and 27.7
Joshua Dickie was in awe of the performance of Speeding Spur.
" I knew he would better than last week but he just felt super tonight"
" His work during during the week had been great and we were pretty confident tonight."
"Dad has done a great job of having him peak for the Derbies and a lot of the credit must go to him," Joshua said.
Trainer John Dickie was all smiles post race.
" We had him a bit short last week but this week he was right on the mark.
"I was really confident going into the race and he didn't let us down," John said.
The plans for Speeding Spur for the rest of the season are already set.
" He will go to the $75,000 sales race at Addington on May 15th and then to the Harness Jewels two weeks later, " John said.
Monbet put in another huge run for second, making up a lot of ground on the leader off a 56.3 last 800 metres while the run of Arya was much more in keeping with her ability.
Harnesslink Media