SONIA Rogers got an early birthday present last weekend when the two-year-old Skitter Scatter, racing for the partnership of her son Anthony and herself, laid strong claims to be the best of her sex and age in Ireland after victory in the Group 2 Debutante Stakes.

Winners in the last decade of the Debutante Stakes, and going back further in time, read like a who’s who of the best fillies to have raced from here, and hopefully Skitter Scatter can continue this trend before she ends up at Airlie Stud for breeding.

Bred by the partnership of Airlie Stud and Three Chimneys Stud in the USA, Skitter Scatter is the second foal from her dam Dane Street who is now wholly owned by the Rogers clan. She is from a family with which they have enjoyed much success over many years. Not only does Airlie Stud have a More Than Ready (Southern Halo) half-brother to Skitter Scatter catalogued as Lot 321 in Book 1 of the Tattersalls October Sale, but they have a son of Dark Angel (Acclamation) and Skitter Scatter’s grandam Daneleta (Danehill) due to come under the hammer as Lot 254 in the Goffs Orby Sale.

The first foal of the Jessica Harrington-trained dual winner Dane Street (Street Cry), dam of the current star juvenile trained by Patrick Prendergast, is Data Dependent (More Than Ready) and she won at two last year in the USA and was runner-up in the Grade 3 Jimmy Durante Stakes at Del Mar. The yearling from Dane Street is Data Dependent’s full-brother, while at home in Airlie is a colt foal by No Nay Never (Scat Daddy). Dane Street was not covered this year.

Daneleta, the grandam of Skitter Scatter, won for Jim Bolger and was third to Rock Of Gibraltar in the Group 3 Railway Stakes before transferring to France where she also won and was stakes-placed for Nicolas Clement. The best of her five winners to date has been Intense Focus (Giant’s Causeway), the third of Jim Bolger’s quintet of Group 1 Dewhurst Stakes winners, alongside Teofilo, New Approach, Parish Hall and Dawn Approach.

The legacy of Scat Daddy (Johannesburg) will continue for a long time. Skitter Scatter is from his eighth and final crop and she may yet join the list of 25 Group 1 winners sired by him, 14 of which are fillies.