Shirl's Speight (Speightstown) is the 3-1 morning-line favorite in the GI Old Forester Bourbon Turf Classic S. at Churchill Downs Saturday. The Charles Fipke homebred, saddled by Roger Attfield, gets an extra furlong to work with after a dramatic late-running victory in the GI Maker's Mark Mile at Keeneland last time out Apr. 15. The lightly raced 'TDN Rising Star', who will be making his first start at Churchill Downs, won the 2020 GIII Marine S. over the all-weather at Woodbine and captured the GIII Tampa Bay S. over the lawn in Florida Feb. 5 before his top-level score in the Maker's Mark.
Tribhuvan (Fr) (Toronado {Ire}), a front-running victor of the 1 3/8-mile GI United Nations S. at Monmouth Park last summer, cuts back in distance and makes his first start since tiring to 13th after setting the pace in the Nov. 6 GI Breeders' Cup Turf.
Adhamo (Ire) (Intello {Ger}), a group winner in France last spring, closed from well out of it in his stateside debut to miss by just a head when second behind the reopposing Cavalry Charge (Honor Code) in the Feb. 19 GIII Fair Grounds S. last time out.
Cavalry Charge returned with a third-place finish in the Mar. 26 GII Muniz Memorial Classic S. last time out.
Dispatched at 9-1 despite entering on a two-race win streak, 'TDN Rising Star' Shirl's Speight (Speightstown) sling-shotted his way to his first top-level score in Keeneland's GI Maker's Mile S. Friday afternoon.
Away in good order, the Fipke homebred bided his time in second last, running off the fence, as GI Shoemaker Mile winner and last out GI Breeders' Cup Mile runner-up Smooth Like Strait (Midnight Lute) dictated terms, putting up early splits of :24.95 and :49.63. Inching up a bit on the backstretch run, Shirl's Speight still had plenty left to do at the top of the lane as Smooth Like Straight valiantly tried to fend off heavily favored Juddmonte import Masen (GB) (Kingman {GB}). Racing way out in the center of the course, Shirl's Speight unleashed a furious rally, gobbling up ground late to nail Masen (GB) on the line.
“He sort of lost his way there after winning his first two starts,” winning trainer Roger Attfield said. “He's a very quick horse and he won those races all on the lead, easily. He didn't really gain any experience out of it. And then he had suspensory problems and we put him away for a while–quite a while–and I appreciate Mr. Fipke giving him that amount of time. They need it when they have that kind of injury.”
He continued, “We brought him back and he's run very well for me. In his last race, he was shut off and came with one big run, and I realized that's probably the way this horse really wants to run. So when I saw he was 50-1 on the morning line, I said, 'I can't be that far wrong.' I won this race with his grandfather [broodmare sire Perfect Soul (Ire) in 2004], and this is a better miler than he was. There was a lot of speed in the race and [Luis] Saez gave him a great ride. He let him do that and he came down the stretch fast, didn't he? I didn't know whether he was going to make it.”
“I was watching the replays and Roger called me,” Saez said. “He said the best way is to come from behind, so I decided to take him back right when we broke. It looked like that was the best decision to make. In the end, he was coming. He ran pretty hard and got there in time.”
Following his 'TDN Rising Star'-worthy debut victory with a win in the 2020 GIII Marine S., Shirl's Speight was off the board in his two starts in 2021, first in a main track sprint at Gulfstream in January and then in a two-turn off-the-turf event there in December. Returning to winning ways when getting back on grass at Tampa Jan. 15 of this year, the homebred rallied to victory in the GIII Tampa Bay S. last out Feb. 5.
Pedigree Notes:
Shirl's Speight is the 25th Grade I winner for his timeless sire Speightstown. He is also one 63 graded winners and 128 black-type scorers by that WinStar stalwart. The winner is just the second top-level scorer out of a daughter of Perfect Soul and one of three graded winners for that broodmare sire.
Charles Fipke purchased Shirl's Speight's Grade I-winning second dam Lady Shirl (That's a Nice) for $485,000 in foal to Theatrical (Ire) at the 2005 KEENOV sale. She had already produced MGISW Shakespeare (Theatrical {Ire}) and SW & MGSP Fantastic Shirl (Fantastic Light) prior to that auction and the foal she was carrying at the time turned out to be MGSW Lady Shakespeare. She produced one of Speightstown's other Grade I winners Lady Speightspeare, who was also a Canadian champion.
Shirl's Speight's dam Perfect Shirl captured the GI Breeders' Cup F/M Turf S. for Fipke and Attfield back in 2011. She has another black-type runner by Speightstown in GSP Speightstown Shirl. The 15-year-old mare did not have foals in 2019 or 2020, but had a More Than Ready filly in 2021 and a Speightstown filly Apr. 2 of this year.
MAKER'S MARK MILE S.-GI, $577,000, Keeneland, 4-15, 4yo/up, 1mT, 1:35.93, gd.
1–SHIRL'S SPEIGHT, 123, h, 5, by Speightstown 1st Dam: Perfect Shirl (GISW-USA, GSP-Can, $1,390,729), by Perfect Soul (Ire) 2nd Dam: Lady Shirl, by That's a Nice 3rd Dam: Canonization, by Native Heritage 'TDN Rising Star' 1ST GRADE I WIN. O/B-Charles Fipke (KY);
T-Roger L. Attfield; J-Luis Saez. $358,050. Lifetime Record:
9-5-0-1, $566,665. *Full to Speightstown Shirl, GSP, $105,031. Click for the eNicks report & 5-cross pedigree.Werk Nick Rating: B.
2–Masen (GB), 123, g, 4, Kingman (GB)–Continental Drift, by
Smart Strike. 1ST G1 BLACK TYPE. O/B-Juddmonte Farms Ltd.
(GB); T-Chad C. Brown. $96,250.
3–Smooth Like Strait, 123, h, 5, Midnight Lute–Smooth as
Usual, by Flower Alley. O/B-Cannon Thoroughbreds, LLC (KY);
T-Michael W. McCarthy. $57,750.
Margins: NO, NK, 3/4. Odds: 9.00, 1.80, 3.20.
Also Ran: Atone, Mira Mission, Count Again, Set Piece (GB), In Love (Brz). Scratched: Ivar (Brz), Public Sector (GB), Somelikeithotbrown. Click for the Equibase.com chart, the TJCIS.com PPs or the free Equineline.com catalogue-style pedigree. VIDEO, sponsored by TVG.
After being victimized by Bleecker Street's whirlwind rally in the Grade 3, $175,000 Endeavour Stakes for fillies and mares on the turf, Emma-Jayne Wilson – the jockey on beaten favorite Lady Speightspeare – was ready to turn the tables on someone at Tampa Bay Downs.
Two races later, in the Grade 3, $175,000 Tampa Bay Stakes for males on the turf, Wilson set Lady Speightspeare's stablemate Shirl's Speight loose in the stretch, and the 5-year-old horse responded by running down the race's defending champion, pace-setter Get Smokin, by a length-and-a-half.
“That's horse racing, in a nutshell,” Wilson said after 9-1 shot Shirl's Speight's victory for breeder-owner Charles Fipke and trainer Roger Attfield in 1:41.20 for the mile-and-a-sixteenth. “There are many ups and downs, and you've just got to ride the wave.
“When good horses come around, they'll show their stuff when the time is right.”
The two stakes races were the centerpiece of a spellbinding “Turf Champions Day” card under overcast skies that resulted in long-shots aplenty visiting the winner's circle (including Bleecker Street and Shirl's Speight, although their payoffs were minuscule in comparison to several others).
In the 23rd running of the Endeavour, the sixth race on the card, Wilson was sitting pretty on the lead on Lady Speightspeare at the eighth pole when unbeaten 4-year-old filly Bleecker Street – whose previous victory here on Jan. 8 came in a conditional allowance/optional claiming event – showed her stuff and then some, accelerating from mid-pack under jockey Hector Rafael Diaz, Jr., for a convincing length-and-a-half triumph.
The victory was the first graded-stakes triumph for the 32-year-old Diaz, who might feel like he's uncovered the key to buried treasure after trainer Chad Brown stuck with him following his three previous victories aboard Bleecker Street.
“She never gave me that turn of foot before,” Diaz said of today's performance by the Peter M. Brant-owned filly, now 4-for-4. “Not like that. Today was her best race, by far. The effort she put in was great. I have to thank God and Chad and his entire crew for this opportunity. They've done an amazing job with this filly. I knew she had to prove herself today against these kind of horses, but I was confident she could do it.
“I saw that green light in the stretch and she just took off, and the rest is history.”
The victory was the fourth in the Endeavour's 23-year history for Brown, more than any other conditioner. Bleecker Street posted a time of 1:41.91 on the firm turf course.
“She has won all four times coming off the pace, and being able to work out a trip like that every time is very difficult to do,” Brown said via telephone. “He (Diaz) has ridden her all four times, and I'm very proud of him.
“She had a good post (No. 2), the trip worked out real well and she showed a super turn of foot through the stretch. This filly took time to come around, and my whole staff has done an unbelievable job with her. And Mr. Brant is so patient. We scratched In Italian from the race this morning because we thought bringing her back inside a month was a little soon for her, and we didn't want to run them against each other.
“She (Bleecker Street) stepped up and it turned out to be the right call,” added Brown, who later won the Grade III Withers for 3-year-olds at Aqueduct with Early Voting.
Wilson was disappointed to get beat, but offered no excuses. “Chad's horses have a tendency of doing that to you,” Wilson said. ”I wouldn't give (Lady Speightspeare) any excuses. She had everything go as well as it could. We had a good run at it – we were just second-best.”
Stunning Princess finished third and Jezebel's Kitten was fourth. Bleecker Street paid $16 to win.
The way Get Smokin was sailing along under jockey Antonio Gallardo in the Tampa Bay Stakes, it appeared everyone was running for second at the top of the lane. The 5-year-old gelding hadn't been asked much approaching the stretch in his first start since June 20, but Wilson sensed she was sitting on a powder keg.
“I was interested to see how the pace was going to set up,” Wilson said of Shirl's Speight's performance. “Last time (a Jan. 15 victory here under Gallardo in an allowance/optional claiming race), he was a little keen, but today he settled off the pace nice and the way they kind of ran away from him early, I just wanted to make sure he relaxed and got into position where he was comfortable.”
Reserved near mid-pack, Shirl's Speight was asked for his best when Wilson tipped him out wide and kept to his task to record his second lifetime Grade 3 victory. Floriform finished third and English Bee was fourth.
“I had to thread the needle a little down the lane, but good horses will overcome adversity and he shot through there like he was shot out of a cannon,” Wilson said. “Roger is a Hall of Famer, and he knows how to have them primed and ready.”
Attfield, in fact, is a member of both the U.S. and Canadian Horse Racing Halls of Fame, a status shared by Get Smokin's trainer, Mark Casse.
“We've lost a lot to Roger. He's a wonderful guy and a class act, and good for him,” Casse said.
Attfield had both of his horses ready for top efforts and was thrilled to come away with a victory and a second.
“It (the Tampa Bay Stakes) was a beautiful race, no question,” he said. “I liked the way he did it today – I don't really want him to be speed all the time, but he's got a lot of speed. (Wilson) rode him very well. I definitely thought (Get Smokin) was the horse to beat.
“And our filly (Lady Speightspeare) ran very well for everything she has been through, so it's been a good day.”
More than one Thoroughbred trainer has said that “time only matters if you're in jail,” but try telling that to a horseplayer. In North America, the fractional and final times of every race listed in a horse's past performances can play an important role in a bettor's decision-making process, not to mention the performance ratings – from Beyer and Brisnet speed figures to Thorograph and Ragozin sheets – that many horseplayers use.
The method of timing races at some tracks has changed in recent years from traditional beam systems that are tripped when the first horse passes designated poles to a GPS system based on transponders placed on a horse's saddle towel. The transition has not been seamless, and some tracks are now using a hybrid of both systems to compile accurate race times and running positions. Even that system can produce inaccurate times, as evidenced by several races on the two-day Breeders' Cup world championships at Del Mar on Nov. 5-6.
In this week's edition of the Friday Show, Equibase president Sal Sinatra joins publisher Ray Paulick and news editor Chelsea Hackbarth to talk about the race-timing challenges he inherited when he joined the company earlier this year and how he hopes timing problems will be resolved. Sinatra, a longtime racing executive who worked in the statistical department of Daily Racing Form when he was just getting started in the business, understands the importance of accurate data, including times, in a horse's past performances.
Paulick and Hackbarth review undefeated Woodbine Star of the Week Lady Speightspeare's victory in the G2 Bessarabian Stakes under Emma-Jayne WIlson. Owned and bred by Charles Fipke (who also owned and bred Lady Speightspeare's multiple graded stakes-winning dam), the 3-year-old Speightstown filly is trained by Hall of Famer Roger Attfield.
Watch this week's Friday Show, presented by Woodbine, below:
