Lady Shirl

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...

The news last week of P. Noel Hickey's death Aug. 8 at 94 was a reminder of how much racing has changed over the years. Hickey owned a stud farm in Ocala, Irish Acres; stood his own stallions that he patronized; bred the runners he raised and raced; and trained them, including one Eclipse Award winner and another near champion, both foaled in Illinois and from stock far off the perimeter of prevailing fashion. Who does that these days? Back in the day, it wasn't unusual to see regional areas...

Despite facing more seasoned rivals in Saturday's GIII Marine S. at Woodbine, Shirl's Speight (Speightstown) looms large in the traditional primer for the Queen's Plate, scheduled for Sept. 12. Sent off at 3-1 for a trainer not typically known for his first-time starters, the Roger Attfield trainee took control in the early going of the seven-furlong turf test July 4 and rolled home an emphatic eight-length winner under Rafael Hernandez, becoming a TDN Rising Star in the process. The Charles Fipke hombred is out of Perfect Shirl (Perfect Soul {Ire})--a...