Henry Dwyer will resist the temptation to chase a second Stakes win in seven days with in-form filly Snitty Kitty despite her breakthrough black-type win at Doomben on Saturday.
The daughter of Snitzel will head for a spell following her tenacious victory in the Listed Lightning Stakes (1000m), ruling out any hopes of tackling next Saturday’s Daybreak Lover Stakes (1200m) at Doomben.
Dwyer said Snitty Kitty would benefit from a break in Queensland’s winter sunshine before returning for a campaign aimed at feature mares’ races in the late spring and the lucrative Magic Millions Sprint (1200m) at the Gold Coast in January.
“She’s come through the race well but we made a decision yesterday that even though she’s won and there’s a race there next Saturday, she’ll go for a spell,” Dwyer said.
“Now that she has won a Stakes race we probably don’t need to be backing her up in seven days and stepping her up to 1200m, which are both queries.
“She’s done enough this time, she’s been in work a fairly long time and she’s done a good job so we’ll go to the paddock and she can spell up there for six weeks.
“She’ll come back for potentially something later in the spring and maybe aim for something on Magic Millions Raceday.”
Dwyer has been thrilled with Snitty Kitty’s improvement this campaign which has seen her progress from a Benchmark 64 win at Yarra Valley in March to a Listed victory on Saturday and he expects the filly to again improve into her four-year-old season.
“We had no opinion of her early which is strange for a fast filly like her because generally they’ll give you a guide pretty early but she’s taken a fair while to put it all together,” he said.
“We’ve had to give her plenty of time as well because there have been a couple of times where she’s gone a little bit sore in the knees and had some immaturity issues because physically, she is quite a big, strong filly and is putting a lot of weight on her legs.
“She’s a Stakes winner now and she’s got her residual value now so all we can do is try and improve on it but she’s not going to go down in value whatever we do so we’re more than happy to keep racing her next year and see what else she can do.”
While Snitty Kitty’s future appears promising, Dwyer holds concerns for the racing career of talented stable mate Lucky Liberty who will undergo surgery in the coming days after suffering a knee injury when unplaced in the Group 1 Darley Goodwood (1200m) at Morphettville on 20 May.
The five-year-old has won six of his 13 careers starts, including the Listed Christmas Stakes (1200m) in December, but has been dogged by injury since he’s three-year-old season.
“He’s got a quite a significant knee injury in the same knee he’s had a chip in before,” he said.
“He’ll go for surgery this week and it will just be a matter of what condition the knee is in generally as to whether we can go on with him or whether he’s done enough.
“If we retire him, he’ll live down at the farm for life, there’s no doubt about that.”
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