*Written by David Brasch, Greyhound Recorder.

Topgun winner Slick Splits will miss his upcoming Group 1 assignments in the Group 1 Melbourne Cup and The Phoenix.

The son of Feral Franky and Foxy Bourbski cracked a scapula when hit in the catching pen after winning a Melbourne Cup Prelude at Sandown on Friday night.

George Dailly confirmed today the winner of 13 races and $283,000 would be out for the next month.

“It will then take another two months to get him back to the track, so that’s three months off the scene,” Dailly said.

“But, he will come back to racing for certain.”

Team Dailly is philosophical about the star sprinter’s injury.

“You have got to take the good with the bad,” he said.

He also reports kennel star, The Phoenix runner-up from 2024, Smooth Plane would be retired after the Melbourne Cup series.

Smooth Plane fell in a Cup Prelude last Friday night at Sandown as an odds-on favourite and when storming through at the first turn to put himself into a winning position.

The winner of 28 of his 90 starts, he has earned $625,000.

“He’s been great for us and doesn’t need to do any more,” he said.

“He will retire after the Melbourne Cup series.”