Dunbar Road

Purchased by White Birch Farm as a yearling for $350,000 at the 2017 Keeneland September sale, Dunbar Road didn’t race until her 3-year-old season, but after just nine starts she has already won six races, half of them graded, and earned nearly $1 million.

After dominating in her debut by more than eight lengths at Gulfstream Park in March 2019, Dunbar Road jumped immediately to graded competition and finished second, beaten just half a length, in the Gulfstream Park Oaks (G2). The runner-up finish gave her 40 points toward the 2019 Longines Kentucky Oaks (G1), but the late start to her career left her without time to gain more points and she was shut out of the field.

A step back to allowance company at Belmont Park resulted in the first of three straight New York wins, the next two coming in the Mother Goose Stakes (G2) and the Alabama Stakes (G1).

Dunbar Road next faced her elders in the Juddmonte Spinster Stakes (G1) at Keeneland and was third, beaten just 1 1/4 lengths by eventual Longines Breeders’ Cup Distaff (G1) winner Blue Prize (ARG). Again facing older fillies and mares, she was fifth in last year’s Breeders’ Cup Distaff, the final start of her 3-year-old season. She started her 4-year-old season six months later by winning the black type Shawnee Stakes at Churchill Downs in May and the Delaware Handicap (G2) at Delaware Park in July.

Competing only in races at a mile or longer on dirt, Dunbar Road has won on fast tracks and sloppy tracks. Patient and versatile, she is usually within a length or two of the early leaders, but has won racing wide and from well behind the pace.

White Birch Farm, the 2017 sale buyer, is an entity of the filly’s owner, Peter Brant, chair and CEO of White Birch Paper Company, which operates mills in the US and Canada. Brant was away from racing for about 20 years before he returned in 2016 to campaign Sistercharlie (IRE), 2018 Eclipse Award-winning female turf champion and winner of that year’s Breeders’ Cup Maker’s Mark Filly & Mare Turf (G1). Brant had won the Breeders’ Cup Sprint (G1) in 1988 with his homebred multiple Grade 1 winner Gulch and he bred Gulch’s son Thunder Gulch, winner of the 1995 Kentucky Derby (G1) and Belmont Stakes (G1).

Dunbar Road is named for the road in Palm Beach, Florida, where Brant maintains a home.

Dunbar Road is trained by Chad Brown, who was an assistant to Hall of Fame trainer Bobby Frankel before opening his own stable in 2007. Brown has won the Eclipse Award as leading trainer four years running, 2016 to 2019.