Shirley Heights

Shirley Heights (1 March 1975 – 17 March 1997) was a British Thoroughbred race horse and winner of the Derby in 1978. The colt had previously won the Royal Lodge Stakes and the Dante Stakes, and he went on to win the Irish Derby before his racing career was ended by injury. He became a highly successful breeding stallion. Background Shirley Heights was a bay horse bred by his owners, the father and son team of Charles Wood, 2nd Earl of Halifax, and Lord Irwin. He was one of many successful racehorses sired by Mill Reef, an American-bred horse who won the Epsom Derby, King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Stakes and Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe in 1971. The successes of Shirley Heights enabled Mill Reef to win the first of his two British sires' championships in 1978. His dam Hardiemma was a highly successful broodmare whose other descendants include Pentire and Divine Proportions. The name Shirley Heights comes from a military lookout point in Antigua Mill Reef had been named after the Mill Reef Club on the same island. The colt was trained throughout his racing career by John Dunlop at Arundel in West Sussex. Racing career Shirley Heights showed promise as a two-year-old, winning twice from six attempts and notably taking the one-mile Royal Lodge Stakes at Ascot Racecourse in September at odds of 10/1. The Royal Lodge was the first time he was ridden by Greville Starkey, who had taken over from the Australian veteran Ron Hutchinson as the principal jockey to the Dunlop stable.