Shady Heights

Shady Heights (12 May 1984 – ca. 1997) was a British Thoroughbred racehorse. In four seasons on the racecourse he competed in Britain, Ireland, France, Germany, Japan and the United States, winning seven of his twenty-nine contests. He showed great promise as a juvenile in 1986, winning on his debut and then finishing second in both the Mill Reef Stakes and the Dewhurst Stakes. In the following year he took the Easter Stakes in April and was briefly made favourite for The Derby but did not score again until late autumn when he won both the Breeders' Cup Prep Mile and the Marshall Stakes. Shady Heights reached his peak as a four-year-old in 1988 when he won the Tattersalls Rogers Gold Cup in Ireland and the Bayerisches Zuchtrennen in Germany before being awarded the Group One International Stakes on the disqualification of Persian Heights. He also finished second in both the Eclipse Stakes and the Phoenix Champion Stakes. He failed to win in five races in 1989 and was retired from racing to become a breeding stallion in Japan. He had little success as a sire of winners. Background Shady Heights was a "lengthy, angular" bay horse with no white Markings bred by the Duke of Roxburghe at his stud at Floors Castle, near Kelso, Scotland. He was from the fifth crop of foals sired by Shirley Heights who won The Derby and the Irish Derby in 1978. He became a very successful breeding stallion who sired many good winners including Slip Anchor and Darshaan. Shady Heights' dam Vaguely won two minor races from twelve starts in Britain in 1976 and 1977. She was a granddaughter of the broodmare Tantalizer, who also produced the St Leger winner Provoke.