Patrick Prendergast, who handled last year's Cartier champion 2-year-old filly Skitter Scatter (Scat Daddy) for Anthony and Sonia Rogers, will not renew his training license this year and will instead move his string and staff to the yard of John Oxx, with the pair forming a training alliance in Oxx's name. Oxx and Prendergast previously trained adjacent to one another on The Curragh, the 44-year-old Prendergast at Melitta Lodge, which he has grown out of, and the 68-year-old Oxx at Currabeg Stables, where he has executed the careers of the likes of Sea The Stars (Ire), Sinndar (Ire), Ridgewood Pearl (GB) and Azamour (Ire), but which has been quieter as of late.
“We feel the timing is good for both parties, we've got the space and Patrick has run out of it,” Oxx said. “I think Patrick would like a change in direction a bit. It suits us and it suits him, so hopefully it will work out well for both of us.
“Patrick doesn't want to be the trainer and is happy to come and work for me. The yards are a few hundred yards apart as the crow flies, with a railway line in between, but we used the same gallops on The Curragh. The horses are moving to my place, they are not going to stay at Melitta Lodge; he won't be training from there.
Of last year's G1 Moyglare Stud, G2 Debutante and G3 Silver Flash S. winner Skitter Scatter, Oxx said, “It's a good boost for us, he's got some good horses. I haven't seen Skitter Scatter yet and Patrick has said she's small and he doesn't know how much scope she has, but she's been a very good filly already.”
Prendergast told The Irish Field it will be business as usual for Oxx's new stable star.
“Very little will change for Skitter Scatter,” he said. “She will work on the same gallops she has always worked on, she will be ridden by the same jockey, Ronan Whelan. The only difference is that there will be an extra set of eyes on her. That those eyes belong to John Oxx is an obvious benefit.”
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