Trainer Geoff Maltby told Trot Insider that the six-year-old trotter Digital Image will not be appearing on the international racing scene for another year

.

Last year, the Balanced Image – Appleby Dreambelle gelding had secured a spot in the Oslo Grand Prix and was set to tour Europe but a throat infection put those plans on the backburner.

Instead, Digital Image enjoyed the stakes season in North America and notched top-three finishes in the American-National (second to World Record holder and U.S. Trotter of the Year Enough Talk) and Breeders Crown (third behind Corleone Kosmos and O'Brien Award winner Arch Madness). Known in the barn as Henry, Digital Image raked in over $200,000 for his Ontario-based owners Richard Thompson, Robert Watson, Mike Bartram and John Vinen.

This year, the plan for the winner of 15 races and $441,328 in purses will be similar to his last.

"Digital Image has been wintering very well this year, he has put on about 200 pounds and even grew a bit bigger," Maltby told Trot Insider. "He is on schedule to qualify early to mid-April and his first stake race will be the Classic Series elim at the Meadowlands. Then the Cutler Memorial, Maple Leaf Trot, Breeders Crown and The Masters at Georgian. There are maybe a couple others here or there, but those are the ones I will aim for."

Although the connections of Digital Image have opted to pass on a trip overseas this year, Maltby says sight seeing in the future is not out of the question.

"If 'Henry' has the year I think he will have, Europe would be on the map for his seven-year-old campaign."