Shirl's Speight, a Grade I winner by Speightstown out of GI Breeders' Cup Filly and Mare Turf winner Perfect Shirl (Perfect Soul {Ire}), will stand the upcoming breeding season at Darby Dan Farm, the farm announced Wednesday. He will stand his first season at stud for $5,000 S&N.
A homebred for Charles Fipke trained by Roger Attfield, the globetrotting Shirl's Speight scored the biggest win of his career in the 2022 GI Maker's Mark Mile at Keeneland, and he was among the top milers that year when also second by three-quarters of a length to champion Modern Games (GB) in the GI Breeders' Cup Mile, also at Keeneland.
In addition to his Grade I triumph and runner-up performance in the Breeders' Cup Mile, Shirl's Speight also finished second in the 2023 GI Woodbine Mile to multiple Grade I winner Master of the Seas (Ire). He won on turf and all-weather surfaces and was placed on dirt behind Grade I winners Mind Control and Hot Rod Charlie when third in the 2022 GIII Salvatore Mile at Monmouth Park.
Shirl's Speight exploded onto the racing scene as a 3-year-old, dominating his Woodbine career debut with an eight-length victory in a seven-furlong maiden special weight on the turf. Despite being geared down late, Shirl's Speight covered the distance in 1:19.97, just missing the course record of 1:19.22 set by Silent Poet in 2019. The effort garnered Shirl's Speight a `TDN Rising Star 'designation. In his next start, Shirl's Speight stretched out to two turns over Woodbine's synthetic surface in the GIII Marine Stakes, which he won by 2 3/4 lengths. He raced in Japan, Dubai (where he was fourth in the G1 Dubai Turf), Canada and the U.S., hitting the board in 10 of 25 appearances and earning $1,497,245. He retires to stud sound.
Speightstown, a champion sprinter and one of the most prolific and versatile sires of the last decade, has several successful sons at stud, including Munnings and Grade I winners Charlatan, Olympiad, and Prince of Monaco.
Shirl's Speight is a member of a family cultivated by Fipke through the decades. One of only a handful of North American breeders who race homebreds exclusively, Fipke purchased Shirl's Speight's second dam, Grade I winner Lady Shirl, for $485,000 at the 2005 Keeneland November sale. Fipke bred Lady Shirl to his homebred Sadler's Wells stallion Perfect Soul (Ire), winner of the 2003 GI Shadwell Keeneland Turf Mile to get Perfect Shirl, winner of the 2011 GI Breeders' Cup Filly and Mare Turf. Perfect Shirl, also trained by Attfield, earned more than $1.3 million during her racing career. Perfect Shirl is also the dam of graded stakes-placed Speightstown Shirl, a full sibling to Shirl's Speight; and Ready for Shirl (More Than Ready), also tabbed a `TDN Rising Star' this year at Keeneland after winning a maiden special weight at 1 1/16 miles on the turf by three lengths in her debut.
Lady Shirl is also the dam of Shakespeare, winner of the GI Woodbine Mile and the GI Joe Hirsch Turf Classic; Lady Shakespeare, a multiple graded stakes winner and the dam of the Grade I winner Lady Speightspeare (Speightstown), a 2-year-old champion filly in Canada for Fipke and Attfield; and stakes winner and multiple graded stakes-placed Fantastic Shirl.
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