Shirl’s Speight, a Grade 1 winner by Speightstown out of Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Turf (G1) winner
Perfect Shirl, will stand the upcoming breeding season at Darby Dan Farm, it was announced today. 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 Maker’s Mark Mile (G1) 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
Breeders’ Cup Mile (G1), also at Keeneland.
In addition to his Grade 1 triumph and runner-up performance in the Breeders Cup Mile (G1), Shirl’s
Speight also finished second in the 2023 Woodbine Mile (G1) to multiple Grade 1 winner Master of the
Seas (IRE). He won on turf and all-weather surfaces and was placed on dirt behind Grade 1 winners Mind
Control and Hot Rod Charlie when third in the 2022 Salvatore Mile (G3) 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 a head-turning 1:19.97, just missing the course record
of 1:19.22 set by Silent Poet in 2019. The impressive effort garnered Shirl’s Speight a TDN Rising Star
designation. In his very next start, Shirl’s Speight demonstrated his versatility in stretching out to two
turns over Woodbine’s synthetic surface. In another impressive performance, Shirl’s Speight left his
rivals in the dust with a 2 ¾-length score in the Marine Stakes (G3) in just his second lifetime start. 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.
He was noted for his high turn of foot at distances from seven furlongs to a mile, and he was tough and
durable throughout his career. An outstanding physical specimen, Shirl’s Speight retires to stud sound.
Shirl’s Speight is by the late Speightstown, a champion sprinter and one of the most prolific and versatile
sires of the last decade. His sons at stud include the top-class proven horse Munnings ($75,000 in 2024),
plus Grade 1 winners Charlatan ($50,000 in 2025), Olympiad ($35,000 in 2024), and Prince of Monaco
($30,000 in 2025).
Shirl’s Speight is a member of a dynamic and highly achieving 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 1 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 Shadwell Keeneland Turf Mile (G1), 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. Perfect Shirl is also the dam of graded stakes-placed Speightstown Shirl, a
full sibling to Shirl’s Speight, and Ready for Shirl (by More Than Ready), 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 Woodbine Mile (G1) and the Joe Hirsch Turf
Classic (G1); Lady Shakespeare, a multiple graded stakes winner and the dam of the Speightstown Grade
1 winner Lady Speightspeare, a 2-Year-Old champion filly in Canada for Fipke and Attfield; and stakes
winner and multiple graded stakes-placed Fantastic Shirl.
For more information on Shirl’s Speight, contact Stuart Fitzgibbon at (859) 621-6763, or by email at
[email protected], or visit www.darbydan.com.
