Skitter Scatter Puts Oxx Back On Classic Trail

[Wandering Eyes]

KILDARE, Ireland—It may be less than a week until Ireland’s champion 2-year-old filly of 2018 steps back onto the track for her seasonal debut in the QIPCO 1000 Guineas but at John Oxx’s Currabeg Stables there’s little hint that this is anything other than an ordinary Monday morning, despite the gaggle of cameramen in attendance.

Since taking out his training licence, Oxx has seen 40 Flat seasons come and go, though it’s unlikely that the measured horseman was any more ruffled at the start of his career than he is now. Calmness pervades his yard on the Curragh and that atmosphere permeates through to Skitter Scatter (Scat Daddy), trained last year with some panache by Patrick Prendergast. The only skitter-scattering in the vicinity comes from the young lambs chasing their mothers as the horses pass by on their way out to exercise.

Since February, Oxx and Prendergast have worked in tandem, the former’s name on the licence, and the latter’s stable star, owned by her co-breeders Anthony and Sonia Rogers of Airlie Stud, among those horses to have moved from Melitta Stable to join Oxx’s string.

“Patrick is here with me and has given me any information that I need about her and will pass comments as we go along about how she reacts to different things, but I must say she’s a pretty straightforward filly,” says Oxx as his long-term employee Stephanie Roussel warms up Skitter Scatter in the trotting ring.

“She’s a bit light and she doesn’t weigh a lot so we have to be careful in that regard, to keep her thriving the best we can. All Patrick’s experience of her last year has been invaluable.”

Indeed, Skitter Scatter would not look out of place among this season’s 2-year-olds, though Oxx believes she has grown a little over the winter. “Patrick tells me she has, though she has only been here since the end of January,” he says, before listing the attributes of the filly who progressed from a maiden victory over five furlongs on Dundalk’s all-weather surface last April to climb the grades with three consecutive group victories, culminating in her G1 Moyglare Stud S. win at her home track.

Oxx adds, “She’s 15.2 and a nice length with a good action. She has a very economical stride. When you have good horses you’re always looking at them and wondering ‘why are they good?’, and in her case she’s not a big, strong athlete that you could pick out at 100 yards but she has a lot of good qualities. She has a grand temperament and she’s a trier, and she has a fluency in her stride. Horses with ability come in all shapes and sizes.”

Oxx would know, as he has had plenty with ability through his hands over the decades, not least the statuesque Sea The Stars (Ire) (Cape Cross {Ire}), who lit up each of the six months in which he raced in 2009, gathering a Group 1 every time he appeared, starting with the 2000 Guineas exactly ten years ago this Thursday.

But all trainers know that the important thing is to keep looking forward, and no doubt the many racing fans who have followed Oxx over the years would look forward to nothing more than cheering home another Classic winner for him this Sunday. With only 16 fillies remaining in the 1000 Guineas at the five-day confirmation stage, Skitter Scatter clearly ranks as one of the leading chances, though, in typical fashion, her trainer is not getting ahead of himself.

“In Newmarket, a lot depends on the size of the field and the draw, and what’s drawn close to you or far away from you. That can be a big factor in the Guineas. It’s ten years since Sea The Stars so it’s nice to come back with a live chance,” he admits.

A relatively mild spring in Ireland has enabled Skitter Scatter to cast off her winter coat and she appears the picture of contentment as she whips in the Oxx string across the Curragh to an oval sand canter which has the racecourse’s magnificent new grandstand as a strikingly modern counterpoint to the ancient terrain of the training grounds.

“I always find it’s tough with 3-year-old fillies in the springtime,” says Oxx, who has enjoyed this vista, bar the modern architecture, for a lifetime, his father, John Sr having bought Currabeg in the year his son was born. “For some reason they can struggle with it and then when they turn four they sail through it, but we’re pretty happy with her work and her coat has come on well. She was a bit backward for a while but she has really come on in the last month and we’re still only in the last week of April.”

He continues, “Patrick has always said that she didn’t take much work, but she ran in March last year so he had her fit and then kept her ticking over between her races, which were at regular intervals through to September. It’s a little bit different this time around as she hasn’t raced since September and it’s the 1000 Guineas and it’s her first run of the season, so she has to work a bit more than he might have worked her last year. We’ve had to try to get the balance right but she is an experienced horse now so that helps. Sometimes trainers find themselves with an inexperienced horse going into the Guineas and it’s a big task for them, but she is very experienced so we have that in her favour.”

Also in her favour is the fact that her trainer has a little experience of his own, as his 12 Classic winners can testify. One more would doubtless be welcomed to christen a promising new partnership.

 

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