Woodbine-based Perfect Shirl stormed down the stretch to take the Filly & Mare Turf event at the Breeders’ Cup World Thoroughbred Championships at Churchill Downs in Louisville, Kentucky.
It is an excellent topper for the Hall of Fame career of Woodbine icon, trainer Roger Attfield, who saddled the horse for owner-breeder Charles Fipke of Kelowna, B.C.
It is Attfield’s first Breeders’ Cup win. “I’ve had seconds in these races and I kept wondering if I was ever going to get it done. God bless her, she did it for me.”
Going into the race, most observers felt Perfect Shirl would not suit the “good” turf at Churchill, a Kentucky-bred who seemed to prefer
*firm* ground. “When I ran her on ‘good’ going before she never really handled it that well and I thought she had to run her best race to be competitive in here and she’s not going to be able to do that on this turf course. When she turned down the backside I could see how easily she was going I wasn’t worried about that then.
In fact, Attfield scratched Perfect Shirl out of the E.P. Taylor Stakes at Woodbine last month, because he felt the ground would not suit her.
It was a race he ended up winning with Miss Keller. “We didn’t run in that one because it was too soft, I thought, but I won it with the other filly so it didn’t matter.”
Fipke was obviously thrilled. “It was really a team effort, the horse, the jockey, Roger Attfield, John Phillips raising the horse. It’s just wonderful.”
Fipke expects that Perfect Shirl, who won by three-quarters of a length over Nahrain, will compete next year. “We will race her next year, too.
I’m sure that’s what we’ll do. We didn’t really expect to win this against such stiff competition. The Europeans are just fantastic horseman and horses. It was unexpected that we would win this.”
John Velazquez rode the four-year-old daughter of Perfect Soul to her fourth career win, covering the 1 3/8 miles in 2:18.62.
She paid $57.60 to win.
Misty For Me was third.
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