TORONTO, ON – Charles Fipke homebred Shirl’s Speight shot clear midway through the far turn and completely dominated his foes to win Saturday’s $125,000 Marine Stakes (G3) at Woodbine.
Breaking cleanly from the far outside post 7 as the even-money favorite under Rafael Hernandez, Shirl’s Speight cleanly cleared most of his inner rivals and raced two-wide into the clubhouse turn. Just to his inside, Untitled held a slight advantage while posting opening fractions of :24.59 and :48.68, but that advantage disappeared midway through the far turn.
Shirl’s Speight took the lead at the 5/16 pole and quickly cruised away from Untitled as he increased the tempo through the turn. Opening up at the top of the stretch, Shirl’s Speight drew off under a confident hand ride to win by 2 3/4 lengths.
The Roger Attfield trainee completed the 1 1/16-mile fast synthetic route in a final time of 1:43.42.
“He settled down and rated,” Attfield said. “Once he got to the 5/8 pole, I was pretty sure he’d just keep galloping around there. He’s a very nice horse, for sure.”
Lucky Curlin fought hard in the stretch to take second by 1 1/2 lengths over Dotted Line, himself 1 length ahead of a weakened Untitled.
Glorious Tribute, Lookinatamiracle, and Perfect Revenge completed the order of finish.
Shirl’s Speight’s win was his second in as many career starts, having broken his maiden by 8 lengths while debuting in a local 7-furlong turf sprint. The 3-year-old Speightstown colt has now earned $86,893 and will likely continue onward to bigger and better events.
“Like I said before, he’s a horse with a tremendous amount of ability,” Attfield said. “He just had that one race and he never learned anything from that race. He did get the experience from it, so today was going to be more interesting.”
Shirl’s Speight returned $4.10 to win, $2.80 to place, and $2.60 to show. Lucky Curlin brought back $2.80 to place and $2.40 to show, while Dotted Line paid $4.40 to show.
