A Nose Is Enough For Callwood Dancer

I felt that Callwood Dancer would be able to get some black type in yesterday's Nassau S, a G2 race for 3yo and upward fillies and mares at Woodbine over 1 1/16m on the turf, but she really did show she is a gutsy filly. She surpassed my expectations by winning and I can't tell you how pleased I am that she did!

I remember picking her for my 2004 crop. She was in the Goffs sale and on the Goffs website they sometimes have pictures next to the results that are taken at the sale. There was one of Callwood Dancer that caught my eye, she has this lovely liver chestnut colour and she looked very elegant. I loved her named too, so one to follow she became.

She raced twice in the UK as a two-year-old and although winless she ran decent enough with a third in her first race and a second in her second and last race there, both at Windsor. She transferred to Harlequin Ranches in the summer and finished her 2yo campaign with consistent performances in Canada, but remained a maiden.

She grew into a nice three-year-old and broke her maiden first time out in May 2007. She was once again very consistent, winning a further two races and showing in another two. That she has once again improved as a four-year-old is a definite. She won on her return in a allowance race at Woodbine by half a length and her trainer and owner believed in her enough to enter her into the Nassau S against the likes of Sealy Hill. I was in doubt whether she would be quite up for such a jump in class, but boy, am I glad they did!

She set the pace straight out of the gate. With no other frontrunner in the race, she could do pretty much what she wanted. The pace was slow over the first four furlongs, which obviously suited her fine. Quite a European way of racing; start slow and speed up later, I like it. Quiet Jungle rallied to try and get passed her and it looked like she would, but Callwood Dancer would just not give up and prevailed by a nose. The favourite Sealy Hill was maybe a little unlucky in running and was going well at the finish 1 1/4 lengths behind Quiet Jungle.

She won for owner Harlequin Ranches and trainer Roger Attfield. She was bred by Quay Bloodstock in Ireland.

So far she has run 13 races, 5 firsts, 1 second and 5 thirds.

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