Shirl's Speight wins the Maker's Mark Mile for 1st Grade 1 tally

Lexington, Ky.

Remember Shirl’s Speight? During the annus horribilis that was 2020, on the way to the Kentucky Derby that COVID pushed from mid-spring to late summer, he was the comet of a 3-year-old who burst on the scene in Canada with a lopsided debut win and then a Grade 3 score at Woodbine.

Then, ahem, came a cough. Something that was going around a barn full of Charles Fipke’s horses who were being trained by U.S. and Canadian Hall of Famer Roger Attfield. Alas, a Kentucky Derby bid for Shirl’s Speight was not to be.

Spin forward to Friday afternoon at Keeneland – a 75-mile drive and 1 1/2 years removed from that Derby dream. Shirl’s Speight (9-1) showed up not as a precocious 3-year-old but, instead, a lightly raced but seasoned 5-year-old. With the bob of his nose at the finish line, he rallied to beat England-bred, first-time U.S. starter Masen (9-5) to win the Grade 1, $600,000 Maker’s Mark Mile.

The stuff to make up for Derby dreams, huh? His first race in Kentucky offered a glimpse of what might have been, right?

Think again.

“He wasn’t going to go to the Derby,” Attfield admitted after the biggest victory of the Speightstown horse’s career. “He’d won his first two races very easily, and Mr. Fipke is a big optimist. Quite often things work out the way he wants them to, but he was the one talking about the Derby. I had no intentions of going there.”

So much for that angle.

How about this one? Shirl’s Speight might have put his bad luck behind him. His 82-year-old trainer displayed the utmost patience, even after four consecutive losses that spanned a drop in class from the 2020 Woodbine Mile (G1) to a lackluster performance late last fall in a $62,500 allowance race at Gulfstream Park. In the middle of all that was a suspensory injury that led to 11 months on the bench.

With the dawn of 2022, Shirl’s Speight seemed to enjoy a rebirth. Moving back to the turf, the Fipke homebred finished first in a pair of races at Tampa Bay Downs, notably coming from 5 1/2 lengths behind Feb. 5 to win the Tampa Bay Stakes (G3).

“I think it was the Tampa race that convinced me that he needed to come from off the pace,” Attfield said. “He had one quarter-mile kick, and so that’s how it worked out.”

That is exactly what happened again on a 68-degree afternoon that went from sunny to overcast with a strong breeze blowing in the face of the horses on the backstretch. That did not help the pace of the Maker’s Mark Mile. Smooth Like Strait (3-1), who would finish a neck back in third, went out in 24.95, 49.63 and 1:13.38.

Masen, who established himself as a European frontrunner before Juddmonte sent him to America, stayed within a length of Smooth Like Strait and seized the lead in the final furlong.

“I was hoping for a little bit more pace,” Masen’s trainer Chad Brown said. “One of the (three race-day) scratches, Somelikeithotbrown, was another one of the speed horses. It left a loose leader there, so I knew going into the race we could end up in a position where he was close and pulling a little bit, which he was.”

With Luis Sáez riding him for the first time, Shirl’s Speight made up five lengths and six places going wide in the final quarter-mile, drew even with Masen in their final strides and prevailed by a nose. His winning time was 1:35.93.

“There was no pace in the race,” Sáez said. “Looking at the replays, it always looked like he would get tired in the end. That’s why we decided to take him back. Everything came up perfect.”

Shirl's Speight paid $20 for the win. Masen was followed across the wire by Smooth Like Strait with Atone rounding out the superfecta.

Attfield would not commit to a next race for Shirl's Speight, although he said the 1 1/8-mile Turf Classic (G1), a May 7 race on the new Churchill Downs turf course – and the Kentucky Derby undercard – might be considered.

“I would say a mile-and-an-eighth is going to be OK for him,” Attfield said. “We’ll have to look into it.”

Attfield might not have the final word. Not if the Fipke family gets to call the shots. Depending on who is answering the questions, Shirl’s Speight might race a second time in the state where he was foaled. Or not.

“It’s an interesting family,” Attfield said, “because they’ve all got their own opinions on life.”