Buy TicketsCharles Fipke’s homebred Shirl’s Speight can join some select company Friday should he prevail in the 36th running of the $600,000 Maker’s Mark Mile (G1).
Winner of the 2022 running of the Maker’s Mark Mile by a nose, Shirl’s Speight could join Wise Dan (2013-2014) and Kip Deville (2007-2008) as the two-time winners of the race. In 11 races since that triumph, Shirl’s Speight has not found the winner’s circle.
“Hard to believe, but he has been running in all of the big ones with a couple of seconds,” trainer Roger Attfield said Thursday morning as a steady rain beat down. “He’s been doing well since his last race, which was the Pegasus (World Cup Turf Invitational-G1 on Jan. 27).”
Shirl’s Speight has raced twice at Keeneland with his other start resulting in a runner-up finish at 55-1 odds in the 2022 FanDuel Breeders’ Cup Mile (G1) Presented by PDJF. His victory in the Maker’s Mark Mile came over a turf course listed as good, a condition that is possible Friday given two days of rain in Lexington.
“Hopefully the race stays on the grass,” Attfield said. “He has won a couple on ‘good’ courses.”
The goal for Shirl’s Speight this year is a return to the Breeders’ Cup World Championships, which will be held at Del Mar Nov. 1-2. His schedule will not be anything like 2023 in which he ran in Japan and Dubai.
“Last year his schedule got all messed up with going to Japan, and he had to miss the summer getting over the trip there and to Dubai,” Attfield said.
Attfield said this is the final year of racing for the 7-year-old Shirl’s Speight, but the next generation is ready to get started here Saturday. Ready for Shirl, a 3-year-old half-sister to Shirl’s Speight, is scheduled to make her debut in Saturday’s fifth race going 1 1/16 miles on the grass.