SHIRL’S SPEIGHT, a Grade 1 winner owned by Canadian Charles Fipke and trained by Hall of Famer Roger Attfield, will be the first overseas runner ever to start in the February Stakes, the season-opening Grade 1 race in the Japan Racing Association. Shirl’s Speight comes off a close second-place finish in the Breeders’ Cup Mile (G1) on turf at Keeneland in November.
Shirl’s Speight has drawn post position 2 in a field of 16 that will travel a one-turn mile on the dirt on Sunday, February 19.
“He seems quite happy being schooled (saddling area and paddock) today, he’s coping with it all very well,” said Attfield. “I think he’s lonely, he hasn’t seen other horses for some time.”
Regarding the draw (No.2), “I’m not really happy with that but it is what it is. A wider draw would have been more preferable, but we just have to cope with it — the jockey will. I haven’t studied the other horses in depth, but basically if he can handle the going, which I think he can, he will be very competitive. Basically, it’s up to the jockey and I have a very experienced jockey who has ridden here many times.
“He lost about 15 pounds, but taking into consideration the 60 hours it took to get here, he’s fine and in good health. He had an extensive work pattern before he came here which enabled me not to have to do too much with him here, so fitness-wise he’s okay.”
The bay six-year-old by Speightstown has tried dirt twice, most recently third in the Grade 3 Salvator Mile at Monmouth Park. He was unplaced in a previous dirt attempt at Gulfstream Park.
Sunday’s renewal at Tokyo Racecourse is one of only two Grade 1 dirt races on the JRA calendar, the other being the Champions Cup in December. This year is the 40th running of the February Stakes, and the race will be race 11 on the Sunday card at Tokyo with a post time Sunday at 1:40 a.m. EST.
TOKYO 11R
THE FEBRUARY STAKES(G1)
February 19, 2023, 1600m, Dirt, Post time 15:40
INT DSN, Special Weight, 4-Year-Olds & Up, Open Class, Value of race: 232,860,000 Yen
Post Horse Sex/Age Breeding Jockey Trainer Owner Breeder
1 – Jasper Prince (USA) H8 Violence Ambitious Journey Bernardini
Katsuharu Tanaka Hideyuki Mori Kazuo Kato Hill ‘n’ Dale Equine Holdings Inc
2 – Shirl’s Speight (USA) H6 Speightstown Perfect Shirl Perfect Soul Lady Shirl Joao Moreira
Roger Attfield Charles Fipke Charles Fipke
3 – Kenshinko (JPN) H6 Pyro Matriarca Cryptic Rascal Amano Mitsurugi Theo Bachelot
Kazuo Konishi Katsuhiko Amano Nicks Co. Ltd.
4 – Dry Stout (JPN) C4 Sinister Minister Must Buy Item Afleet Big Marine Keita Tosaki
Mitsunori Makiura YGG Horse Club Co. Ltd.
Shimokobe Farm
5 – Auvergne (JPN) H7 Smart Falcon Guyenne Tanino Gimlet
Sugino Toyo Hime Yuichi Fukunaga Masayuki Nishimura Tadakuni Sugiyama
Tadakuni Sugiyama
6 – Meisho Hario (JPN) H6 Pyro Meisho Ohi Manhattan Cafe
Alpine Rose Suguru Hamanaka Inao Okada Yoshio Matsumoto
Mishima Bokujo
7 – Lemon Pop (USA) H5 Lemon Drop Kid Unreachable Giant’s Causeway
Harpia Ryusei Sakai Hiroyasu Tanaka Godolphin
Mr. & Mrs. Oliver S. Tait
8 – Admire Lupus (JPN) G6 Henny Hughes Curl Fatare King Kamehameha
Elfin Feather Hiroyuki Uchida Yukihiro Kato Junko Kondo
Northern Farm
9 – Shonan Nadeshiko (JPN) M6 Orfevre Shonan Mao Daiwa Major
Shonan Happiness Takeshi Yokoyama Naosuke Sugai Tetsuhide Kunimoto
Tetsuhide Kunimoto
10 – T M South Dan (JPN) H6 South Vigorous Moving Out Langfuhr
Renaissance Found Christophe Lemaire Masayoshi Ebina Masatsugu Takezono
Grand Stud
11 – Soliste Thunder (JPN) H8 Toby’s Corner Love So Sweet Special Week
Quixotic Love Akira Sugawara
Daisuke Takayanagi Minoru Murakami
Murata Bokujo
12 – Sekifu (JPN) C4 Henny Hughes Siyabona Kingmambo
Relish Mirco Demuro
Koshiro Take Akira Nakatsuji
Bamboo Stud
13 – Speedy Kick (JPN) F4 Taisei Legend Desert Flower Silent Deal
Ruber Norifumi Mikamoto
Tomoyuki Fujihara Suzuyuki Kato
Suzuyuki Kato
14 – Helios (JPN) G7 Orfevre Ange Chouette French Deputy
Shonan God Yutaka Take
Masato Nishizono Kyoko Kurokawa
Kuwata Bokujo
15 – Red le Zele (JPN) H7 Lord Kanaloa French Noir French Deputy
Purple White Yuga Kawada
Takayuki Yasuda Tokyo Horse Racing Co. Ltd.
Shadai Farm
16 – Keiai Turquoise (JPN) H7 Kinshasa no Kiseki Keiai Daisy Kurofune
Keiai Gallery Kazuo Yokoyama
Koichi Shintani Keiai Stallion Co. Ltd.
Queens Ranch Ltd
Roger Attfield talked to the Japan Racing Association on Thursday morning:
Q: Are you planning on breezing him prior to the race?
A: No, we don’t have any plans of doing any strong work up to the race.
Q: What is the strong point of your horse?
A: He’s very level-headed, he has a good late kick in the race. If he’s handling the going as well as I hope he does, he’s a very competitive horse and he’s got a very strong late run—whether he can show that on the dirt, I don’t know.
Q: Upon seeing your horse for the first time since his departure from his home country, do you see any difference in him?
A: No, he’s settled in very well. He had a very long trip and surprisingly enough he’s eaten all the time—on the plane and ever since he’s been here—and has lost very little weight and he’s been training here very forwardly.
Q: Having seeing him work today, how would you assess his condition?
A: He’s in great condition and he’s happy here. I was a little concerned about the deeper sand going for him because he is basically a turf horse in America. But he seems to have handled it very well. We schooled him this morning just from the turf to the dirt track which he handled very well, he’s handled his gate work very well and I couldn’t be happier.
Q: For Shirl’s Speight to run in this race, you will bear the expenses to fly him here. What was the reason that led you to make this decision?
A: Actually, it was the owner of the horse’s idea to do this. He was quite adamant that he wanted to try him on the dirt here. I’ve always been a bit apprehensive about that because he’s only run twice on the dirt and they hadn’t been that great a race.
I was a little concerned when my assistant told me how deep the dirt was out here. When he broke from the gate the other day, he ran a few furlongs and he seemed to handle it very well. I just have my fingers crossed.
Q: What do you think his aptitude is on the dirt track here?
A: I’ve worked him quite a few times on the dirt track at the training center that I always go to in Florida and that’s a reasonably deep dirt track, and he worked exceptionally well over it. He’s a very versatile horse but watching videos of him here and watching him this morning, he looks like he’s handling the track very well and if he can run to his true ability, he will be very competitive—but it is unknown to me.
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