Latrobe Sister Pink Dogwood Breaks Maiden at Gowran

Pink Dogwood, a full sister to Dubai Duty Free Irish Derby (G1) hero Latrobe, got off the mark at the third attempt Sept. 22, winning the opening Irish Stallion Farms E.B.F Fillies Maiden over a mile at Gowran Park in straightforward fashion.

Always up with the pace under Donnacha O'Brien, Pink Dogwood pulled clear of some well-bred rivals with ease, the daughter of Camelot hitting the line seven lengths clear of Bodhicitta, a daughter of Whitsbury Manor Stud's Showcasing.

A €380,000 (US$450,300) purchase from last year's Goffs Orby Yearling Sale by the Magnier-Mayfair-Doyle alliance, Pink Dogwood made her debut last month at the Curragh and was well beaten by the subsequent Moyglare Stud Stakes runner-up Lady Kaya.

She finished second again next time when favorite, but put that firmly behind her Saturday with a pleasing performance. The filly is entered in the Sept. 28 Shadwell Rockfel Stakes (G2) and next month's bet365 Fillies' Mile (G1), both at Newmarket.

Pink Dogwood is the fourth winner, from the same number to race, by Shamardal's Question Times, with she and Latrobe joined on the roll of honor by last year's Gladness Stakes (G3) winner Diamond Fields and the three-time winner Entangling, both by Fastnet Rock.

Winning Saturday, Pink Dogwood achieved something Latrobe did not, scoring as a 2-year-old. Her brother finished second in his only start at 2.

Diamond Fields similarly took her time, notching a win when successful on her fourth outing as a juvenile.

Pink Dogwood represents another feather in the cap of her sire Camelot, who has enjoyed a fine time of things in 2018 with not only Latrobe but Royal Ascot scorer Hunting Horn and Belmont Oaks Invitational Stakes (G1) winner Athena emerging from his first crop and Arthur Kitt joining Pink Dogwood in advertising the claims of his second.

Question Times, meanwhile, has a Castletown Stud-consigned yearling colt by Zoffany cataloged at next month's Goffs Orby Sale.

Elsewhere in the same race, third place was filled by Moyglare Stud debutante Mia Maria, a sister to the four-time stakes winner Carla Bianca.

Further back in the field was the winner's stablemate The Tooth Fairy, a full sister to the brilliant Found, among others, who was also making her debut.

Saturday's second race at Gowran Park, the Irish Stallion Farms E.B.F (C & G) maiden over the same trip, also went the way of the O'Brien father-son team, as Circus Maximus built on his debut fifth at the Curragh last month to score.

The colt, a son of Galileo, is the first foal out of the Danehill Dancer mare Duntle, who won the Sandringham Handicap at Royal Ascot in 2012 and followed up at the same meeting 12 months later in the Duke of Cambridge Stakes (G2).