“It’s been quite a long road with this filly,” said Callaghan, who
Dubawi Heights was well placed by regular rider Joel Rosario, just
As Miss Pleasant and Burg Berg fought it out at the top of the
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“I was just following the horse in front of me,” Rosario said. “She took me
to the right place and was doing it comfortably. They weren’t going that quickly
up front. She’s getting better every race. Actually, I was surprised because she
can finish better now. She made a little move at the quarter-pole and really
found her stride in the stretch.”
Lilly Fa Pootz, despite being steadied in traffic along the
rail on the far turn, swung out and got up in a blanket finish for second. Noses
apart were the respective third Miss Pleasant and fourth Well Monied, the 5-2 favorite.
Grade 2 veteran Well Monied, unraced since her fourth in the Grade 1 Gamely 11 months ago, closed with interest from farther back in a useful return. Burg
Berg was another head back in fifth, followed by Talktoomuch, Vamo a Galupiar (Chi),
Blue Maiden (GB) and Smart
Striking. Givine (Fr) and Saanneen
were scratched, with the latter opting for Sunday’s 7TH race.
Dubawi Heights now sports a mark of 11-3-3-1, $505,196. 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 Group 2 Lowther, 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 Group 2 Rockfel, 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, and punched her ticket to the
Wilshire.
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,
winner of the 2004 Group 1 Haydock Sprint Cup over males. Rosie’s Posy is also
a half-sister to Group 3-placed stakes victress Bay Tree (Ire).
Dubawi Heights’ second dam, multiple English stakes heroine My Branch, placed in such events as the
Group 1 Irish One Thousand Guineas and Group 1 Cheveley Park. Further back, this
is the family of the great Royal Palace, hero of the 1967 Epsom Derby and Two Thousand Guineas
and the 1968 Coronation Cup, Eclipse and King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Stakes.
Her trainer mentioned the May 30 Gamely as a likely objective.