Oxx targeting autumn return for Skitter Scatter

Horse Racing

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Racing365
June 5, 2019 10:32 am

Trainer John Oxx has confirmed Skitter Scatter is unlikely to feature until the second half of the season.

The daughter of Scat Daddy won her final three starts as a juvenile for Patrick Prendergast and was one of the leading Irish hopes for the 1000 Guineas at Newmarket last month, but she never landed a blow and finished 14th behind Hermosa on her stable debut.

The three-year-old was found to have suffered a torn muscle during the race and Oxx has stated she will miss her summer engagements, including Royal Ascot and Newmarket’s July Festival.

‘She’s making gradual progress.

She’s been confined to walking exercise for a month and we’re coming to the end of that now, so we’ll see how we go from here,’ Oxx said.

‘We think the torn muscle happened about three furlongs out and she just went backwards then.

It’s disappointing, but these things happen.

‘ The filly, who won the Moyglare Stud Stakes last season, has been given the Group One Matron Stakes on Irish Champions Weekend as a target, but Oxx will not rush his stable star back to full fitness.

He added: ‘It’s a slow process and she hasn’t been given the all-clear to step up her work yet.

‘These things take time and we’ll just have to be patient.

She’ll recover all right and hopefully it will be soon enough, but we haven’t set a deadline for her to run.

‘The Matron Stakes is a Group One target we have in mind for her, but how we get there – whether we can get one or two runs into her beforehand – we’ll just have to see how she progresses.’