It hasn’t rained nearly enough in Toronto. Although the grass was lush and deep, the turf course at Woodbine Racetrack was a firm, rattling thing. And it worried trainer Roger Attfield when he had to race Ready For Shirl on it in the Canadian Stakes on July 20.
Imagine, putting a 4-year-old filly on it, who had in the past had a difficult time maintaining weight. Was it wise to squeeze a delicate lemon?
There were many dry spots. Even on Attfield’s gardens at home, which he nurtures like a horticulturist.
And there had been a long dry spot for Emma-Jayne Wilson, the highest-earning female jockey in the world ($91-million and counting) who sat on the sidelines for months, after her mount, Ready Shakespeare, collapsed with an apparent heart attack. Wilson plunged head-first in the metal rail, and suffered neck and pelvic fractures last October.
After a harrowing and intense rehabilitation, she began to ride again only on June 12, well after the Woodbine season started. She won her fourth start.
And then on July 5, Wilson was unseated from a horse in a race and did a face-plant on the Tapeta artificial track. A trip back to Sunnybrook Hospital cleared her. But not exactly what she needed.
Attfield is now 85 years old, and sports an illustrious career that had launched him into both the Canadian and the U.S. Halls of Fame. This season at Woodbine, he had started only 13 horses, winning with two.
Ready for Shirl had won only three of 11 starts in her career, but had finished second in the Nassau Stakes in her most recent start. In the Canadian, she went off at 6 to 1, but was up against a South African Grade 1 winner (Gimme A Nother), now based in the US; French-bred Venencia from Chad Brown’s stable; and Irish-bred Scarlet Poppy, from Wesley Ward’s barn.
But Ready for Shirl has lots going for her: Attfield is a wizard. The filly is owned and bred by Charles Fipke, the colourful Canadian Indiana Jones, who particularly loves the blood of Northern Dancer and Secretariat. (Who wouldn’t?) And then there was Wilson, who regularly rides Fipke’s horses for Attfield.
Ready for Shirl is a daughter of Fipke’s Perfect Shirl, who stunned racegoers when she won the 2011 Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Turf Stakes at odds of 27 to 1. Perfect Shirl raced only once after that, and then was retired to Fipke’s broodmare band. It had rained that Breeders’ Cup day at Churchill Downs, and Attfield had worried that she wouldn’t like that soft turf. The way she moved down the backside in it, Attfield knew he had a shot.
Perfect Shirl didn’t foal anything like herself until 2017, when Shirl’s Speight came along, won the Marine Stakes at Woodbine, and then won the G1 Makers’ Mark Mile with a 104 Beyer, finished second to the European star Modern Games in the Breeders’ Cup Mile and second in the Woodbine Mile to another European giant Master of the Seas. He won almost $1.5-million.
Of course, Perfect Shirl was by Perfect Soul, Fipke’s star turfer, a son of Sadler’s Wells (Northern Dancer) out of a Secretariat mare. All of them carry Fipke’s white silks with blue and yellow insignia, so easy to pick out on a racetrack.
You could go dizzy trying to keep up to Fipke’s naming system. Perfect Shirl’s foals are: More Perfect, Ready and Perfect, Perfect Speighty, Shirl’s Speight, Speightstown Shirl, Ready for Shirl and Perfect Shirlstown. Then there is the Shakespeare strain. These foals are either by More Than Ready for Breeders’ Cup Mile winner Speightstown. Apparently, (breaking news) Perfect Shirl has most recently been bred to Gun Runner.
All of this came together on Sunday, when Ready for Shirl won the Canadian Stakes in the last nodding stride, ahead of Gimme A Nother and Valencia not far behind, closing strongly. It was the 4-year-old filly’s first Graded win. And for Wilson, it was just the best time: back in the big winner’s circle again.
“It’s fun to be back in the tack,” Wilson said afterwards. “It’s fun to be in the winner’s circle.
“It’s just fun to be here.”
Ready for Shirl sat a close fifth, behind a slow pace set by the South African, but she swept five-wide around the final turn. She gobbled up the ground with a patented strong stretch ride by Wilson and won in 1:49.57.
Wilson had breezed Ready for Shirl on the track turf, and has been on her a lot in the mornings. “She was quite stellar, both physically and mentally,” Wilson said. “She kind of telegraphed to use that she was going to show a big day. She showed up exactly what we expected.”
Attfield said he was pleased by the filly’s last work. “It was as good as she’s ever worked for me,” he said. She’s carrying more weight than she ever carried before. Since her last race, she’s put weight on, and I’ve always had trouble putting weight on that filly.
“So she’s indicating that she’s really rounding into a nice filly now.”
Do the Fipke horses always run better as they get older?
“We all do,” Attfield said.
Fipke, a multimillionaire geologist who discovered diamonds in the Canadian north, is no spring chicken either. He’s now 79. And has always entrusted his horses to Attfield.
Ready for Shirl ran her final quarter in 23.21 seconds. She was hustling.
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