Shirl's Speight & The 'Gov': Third Time Lucky in Woodbine Mile?

SHIRL’S SPEGHT’S first try in the Ricoh Woodbine Mile came in just his third career start – September 19, 2020 – and the fans loved him. The bay son of Speightstown burst onto the Ontario racing scene in July for owner and breeder Charles Fipke and trainer Roger Attfield, winning his debut, as a 3-year-old, by eight lengths and scorching the turf with a fast time of 1:19.97 for seven furlongs.

A month and a half later he romped in the Grade 3 Marine Stakes on the main track.

As an American bred (he was foaled in Kentucky), there were not many stakes races to run in by that fall so Attfield tried the Mile. The horse fared okay, seventh and just five lengths behind the winner, champion Starship Jubilee.

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Shirl’s Speight had a start-and-stop campaign from there, finally returning to the winner’s circle in January of 2022 in an allowance/optional claiming race on turf at Tampa Bay Downs. Two races later Attfield had him primed for a Grade 1 score in the Maker’s Mark Mile.

Last fall, Shirl’s Speight tried the Woodbine Mile again but did not have the smoothest of trips while trying to keep up to European whiz-kid Modern Games. But in his next race, he pushed that same colt to the limit when he was second, less than a length back of him in the Breeders’ Cup Mile (G1) at Keeneland.

Attfield, a member of two Halls of Fame, trainer of three Triple Crown winners, hundreds of stakes winners and eight King’s Plates, has actually not won the Ricoh Woodbine Mile in the form it is in today. ‘The Guv’, as he is affectionately known by his peers, won two editions of the Molson Expoer Million which was a dirt race strictly for 3-year-olds. His winners were Izvestia and Peteski.

But since it has been the very important, one-mile, Grace 1 grass race, a Win and You’re In event for the Breeders’ Cup World Championships, the Woodbine Mile has eluded Attfield. Pretty much the only big stakes race in Ontario he has not won.

Shirl’s Spight, who is now 6, is back this year meeting five rivals in the Mile. His rider this year is John Velazquez, who incidentally, has won a record 5 Miles, all since the year 2000. Shirl’s Speight, who was traveling the world – Japan and Dubai – this winter, just came back from a vacation nd was fourth in the King Edward Stakes (G2) behind War Bomber (also in the Mile). The horse chased the very hot pace and stayed on well, no doubt needing the race to get back into top shape.

He has powered through three strong workouts since then, with one of his best friends, jockey Emma-Jayne Wilson, as his partner, and this could be the day the handsome horse and his champion trainer take home their first Mile.

To do so, they have to get past the heavy favourite, Master of the Seas (Ire), from the same barn as Modern Games, War Bomber and a trio of guys form the Mark Casse stable. And he may need another race before heading to California for the Breeders’ Cup in November.

But it is tough to count out the powerful team of Shirl’s Speight, Velazquez and the ‘Guv’.