Matilda Picotte on course for Curragh Group 2 Trainer Kieran Cotter sent out his fifth winner of the season when Tiny Bit scored at Down Royal on Friday evening and afterwards outlined plans for the yard’s talented two-year-old Matilda Picotte. The daughter of Sioux Nation showed plenty of pace when making all in a six-furlong Curragh maiden in early May and was sent off joint-favourite for the Group 3 Coolmore Stud Fillies’ Sprint Stakes at Naas later in the month. She again made the running but was collared inside the final furlong and eventually finished fourth, a length and three quarters behind fellow joint-favourite Meditate. The latter, trained by Aidan O’Brien, maintained her unbeaten record with an emphatic success in Friday’s Albany Stakes at Royal Ascot while Treasure Trove, who was a place behind Cotter’s charge, also enhanced the Naas form with an easy win in the opener at Down Royal the same day. The Portarlington trainer remarked: "We dodged a bullet going to Ascot, we probably thought we might come home with no horse. She would have been fully entitled to go there and the form was franked very well with Meditate. "She is going for the Airlie Stud Stakes (Group 2) at the Curragh next Sunday. It is only ten minutes up the road and it is worth a lot of money. "She has been super since her last run, I'm absolutely delighted with her. "I'd say she is flexible enough (with ground) but she's like a bit of an ease. I'm glad we missed Ascot with it being firm. I'd say she would have gone on it but we may have come home with a sore horse. "I'm looking forward to it next weekend. She has a good future and we will be minding her because she is a big filly and she has plenty more developing to do. She won't be overfaced. "She's also in the Ballyhane Stakes at Naas in August and we will go there." Additional reporting by Gary Carson
