After chasing front runner Celtic Princess (Brz) (Public Purse) from the
outset, DUBAWI HEIGHTS (GB) (Dubawi) willed her way past the longtime leader in
the nick of time in Monday’s $250,000
Gamely S.
(G1) at Hollywood Park. Besides racking up her fourth straight victory, she
became the first Grade 1 winner for Simon Callaghan, who trains the filly for
his father Neville Callaghan and partners McStay, Magnier and Wyatt.
Celtic Princess, the 2008 Brazilian Horse of the Year, showed her projected
early speed while rating well within herself. Regular rider Joel Rosario kept
Dubawi Heights just off the pacesetter in second, not letting her get away
through sensible splits of :23 1/5, :47 2/5 and 1:11 3/5. Malibu Pier (Malibu
Moon) was also forwardly placed in third, until she began to tread water on the
far turn. The 9-5 favorite Cozi Rosie (Pleasantly Perfect), on the other hand,
was gaining by that point, but not fast enough to make a dent on the top two.
Swinging into the stretch, the affair was to be decided between Celtic
Princess and Dubawi Heights. The Brazilian-bred kept on determinedly in her
first start since December, but her pursuer was both race-fit and inexorable.
Making her first attempt at 1 1/8 miles, Dubawi Heights summoned the stamina in
her pedigree and subdued Celtic Princess by a head in the final strides,
stopping the teletimer in 1:47 1/5 on the firm turf. The 9-2 third choice
returned $11.40, $7 and $3.80.
Cozi Rosie reported home another 1 3/4 lengths back in third. Restless Soul
(GB) (Singspiel [Ire]), Malibu Pier, Eclair de Lune (Ger) (Marchand de Sable),
Callaghan’s other entrant Turning Top (Ire) (Pivotal) and Madera Castana (Chi)
(Indy Dancer) rounded out the order of finish.
With this signature success to her credit, Dubawi Heights improved her mark
to 12-4-3-1, $655,196. She never got around to breaking her maiden in England,
but her failure was primarily a result of her being highly tried at two in 2009.
After two unplaced efforts in maiden company, Simon Callaghan pitched her into
the Lowther S. (Eng-G2), where she finished third to the high-class Lady of the
Desert.
Dubawi Heights was then just worn down by the smart Shamandar in the
lucrative Watership Down Stud Sales race for fillies, and one week later, she
again played second fiddle in the valuable Tattersalls Timeform Fillies’ 800,
this time to subsequent multiple Group 1 star Lillie Langtry (Ire). Wheeling
back on two weeks’ rest in the Rockfel S. (Eng-G2), Dubawi Heights didn’t do
herself justice and folded to sixth in her British finale. The bay was sold for
$131,173 at Tattersalls that December, but Neville Callaghan remained a partner,
and she stayed with Simon.
She resurfaced with her expatriate trainer in Southern California in the
latter part of 2010, and scored her overdue maiden win in her third U.S. start
on November 28 at Hollywood. Dubawi Heights was sidelined until April 1, when
she returned with a visually impressive entry-level allowance victory at Santa
Anita. She made it a hat trick in the April 30 Wilshire (G3), propelling her
into the Gamely.
Bred by Aston Mullins Stud in Great Britain, Dubawi Heights has gone through
the sales ring at Tattersalls three times. She initially brought $133,871 as a
Tattersalls December weanling, and in her second visit to the venue, she fetched
$131,891 as an October yearling, before her aforementioned tour in December
2009. Her dam, the winning Suave Dancer mare Rosie’s Posy, is herself a
half-sister to English highweight older sprint mare Tante Rose (Barathea [Ire]),
winner of the 2004 Haydock Sprint Cup (Eng-G1) over males. Rosie’s Posy is also
a half-sister to Group 3-placed stakes victress Bay Tree (Ire) (Daylami [Ire]).
Dubawi Heights’ second dam, multiple English stakes heroine My Branch
(Distant Relative), placed in such events as the Irish One Thousand Guineas
(Ire-G1) and Cheveley Park S. (Eng-G1). Further back, this is the family of the
great Royal Palace (*Ballymoss), hero of the 1967 Derby and Two Thousand Guineas
and the 1968 Coronation Cup, Eclipse and King George VI and Queen Elizabeth S.