Instead all three of those drives will go to Butcher's brother Philip, giving him a huge headstart in tonight's Drivers Challenge.
David will instead head to Melton in Victoria to partner Cowgirls N Indians in her semifinal of the Australasian Breeders Crown.
The Harness Jewels winner meets two of Australia's best fillies in the stronger semifinal but from barrier two deserves to start a warm favourite, even though Australian judges rate local filly La Machane.
Butcher has an exceptional record in Australasian Breeders Crowns, the finals of which will be staged on Sunday week.
The ABC meeting has grown into the best day of harness racing on the Australian calendar and Butcher has won six finals with superstars like Changeover and Tintin In America, including two last year with Miami H and De Lovely.
He rates Cowgirls N Indians as good enough to follow in those hoofprints.
"She is a really good filly, very fast," he told the Herald.
"She has always had the speed but what has become important lately is she has learned to relax.
"I think she is a better all-round filly now than when she won the Jewels."
One new weapon Cowgirls N Indians has added to her arsenal is gate speed, as she easily led older mares from the start on her way to winning at Cambridge last start.
That will be crucial tonight because if she can hold the lead, or at worst trail La Machane, she will take enormous beating.
"We haven't used her out of the gate much so far but she will have that when we need to because she has so much natural speed.
"If she leads or trails it will take a good filly to beat her."
New Zealand's pacing team for this year's Breeders Crown has been weakened by the defections of Fly Like An Eagle, Gold Ace and Devil Dodger but we still have other serious semifinal winning chances in Mr Nickel (2-year-old pacers) and Tatijana Bromac (3-year-old fillies).
Mr Nickel has also drawn perfectly at barrier two tonight and looked back to his best last start so is the one to beat in race four, especially with his key rivals drawn the second line.
His stablemate Tatijana Bromac put her disappointing Queensland campaign behind her with a stylish win last start and is peaking at the right time for race six, her semifinal of a weakish fillies division.
Both pacers will have benefited from their trainer Mark Purdon being in Victoria for the last fortnight putting the winning polish on them.
Also of interest to Kiwi punters tonight will be Woodlands Northern Derby winner Sushi Sushi's attempt to remain unbeaten for the season in race three tonight.
