UP & ATT ’EM
Oxx: Filly has strength & temperament to be star
SKITTER SCATTER, whose progress as a juvenile culminated in victory in the Group 1 Moyglare Stud, will start her three-year-old campaign in the Qipco 1,000 Guineas at Newmarket on May 5. Trainer John Oxx, who inherited the star filly when her trainer Patrick Prendergast, inset, decided not to renew his trainer’s licence over the winter and opted instead to join forces with Oxx at his historic Currabeg yard, confirmed plans yesterday at an event organised to launch the 2019 Irish Flat Season which will open at Naas on Sunday. Prendergast is continuing to pre-train at his Melitta Lodge yard while his string is now under the care of Oxx, who explained: “Skitter Scatter was constantly under-rated by everyone last year and improved every time she went to the well.
“She’s a filly with a very sweet nature, uncomplicated in her work and, at 15.2 hands, is plenty big enough. It just remains to be seen if she had trained on and if others will progress passed her. She should be fine over a mile, but I wouldn’t expected her to go any further. And she’ll go straight to Newmarket for the English Guineas.”
Oxx, who has trained some real stars in his 40-year career, including the likes of Ridgewood Pearl, Sinndar, Alamshar, Azamour and the great Sea The Stars, and whose string is back up to the 80-mark, was in philosophical mood as he reflected: “A good horse must have a strong physical and mental constitution. And temperament is what separates great horses from the others.”
Naas will stage an eightrace card on Sunday, to kick-start the new season, featuring the €100,000 Tote Irish Lincolnshire, the Group 3 Lodge Park Stud Park Express Stakes and a new addition to the card, the listed Devoy Stakes, for which Aidan O’brien’s Amedeo Modigliani, a one-time fancy for last year’s Vodafone Derby, is a fascinating entry.