Darby Dan Farm’s first-year stallion Shirl’s Speight, a Grade 1 winner by Speightstown out of Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Turf (G1) winner Perfect Shirl, has had his first mares checked in foal, the farm announced today.
A homebred for Charles Fipke trained by Roger Attfield, the globetrotting Shirl’s Speight was versatile and accomplished on all three surfaces. He scored his biggest win in the 2022 Maker’s Mark Mile (G1) at Keeneland—earning a career-high 104 Beyer Speed Figure—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 Breeders’ Cup Mile (G1), finishing ahead of eight Grade 1 winners. All told in an outstanding racing career that saw him compete in Grade 1 races in Japan (on dirt), Dubai (fourth in the G1 Dubai Turf), Canada, and the U.S., Shirl’s Speight hit the board in 10 of 25 appearances competing against top-level horses and banked $1,497,245.
Shirl’s Speight is by the late Speightstown, a champion sprinter, winner of the 2004 Breeders’ Cup Sprint (G1), and one of the most prolific and versatile sires of the last decade. Shirl’s Speight is a member of a dynamic and highly achieving family cultivated by Fipke through the decades. Fipke purchased Shirl’s Speight’s second dam, Grade 1 winner Lady Shirl, for $485,000 at the 2005 Keeneland November sale. He bred Lady Shirl to his homebred Sadler’s Wells stallion Perfect Soul (IRE) to get Perfect Shirl, winner of the 2011 Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Turf (G1). Perfect Shirl, also trained by Attfield, earned more than $1.3 million during her accomplished racing career.
For more information on Shirl’s Speight, who stands for $5,000 S&N, contact Stuart Fitzgibbon at (859) 621-6763, or by email at Stuart@darbydan.com, or visit www.darbydan.com.
