Ready for Shirl Does Family Proud in Keeneland Debut

This column highlights the performances of maidens who have made no more than five starts and who either sold for more than $500,000 at public auction, have siblings that are graded/group winners, or have dams that are graded/group winners. BloodHorse research shows maiden winners, in particular, who meet these criteria are more likely to go on to be graded stakes winners.

Keeneland

The family of grade 1-winning Illinois-bred mare Lady Shirl struck again when her granddaughter Ready for Shirl waltzed home a 3 1/2-length winner in her Keeneland debut April 13.

(9) Ready For Shirl, half-sister to 2022 Maker's Mark Mile winner Shirl's Speight, kicks clear to win race 5 on debut! (1) Pin Up Betty checks in second and (2) Spaliday takes third. pic.twitter.com/SCPvBaSmNE

— Keeneland Racing (@keenelandracing) April 13, 2024

A hard-knocking grade 1 winner of $951,523, Lady Shirl was sold to Canadian geologist and entrepreneur Charles Fipke for $485,000 at the 2005 Keeneland November Breeding Stock Sale through his bloodstock agent Jack Werk. The final price appeared a bargain buy considering the mare's 4-year-old son Shakespeare had captured that year's Joe Hirsch Turf Classic Invitational Stakes (G1T) and Belmont Breeders' Cup Handicap (G2T). Two years later, Shakespeare would add another grade 1 to his C.V. with a scintillating, late-running score over Breeders' Cup Mile (G1T) hero Kip Deville in the 2006 Woodbine Mile (G1T).

Four years following Shakespeare's win, Lady Shirl's Perfect Soul filly Perfect Shirl provided Fipke with a treasure almost as worthy as Fipke's Ekati diamonds—a Breeders' Cup trophy. Perfect Shirl would retire to Fipke's broodmare band one start after her 27-1 triumph in the 2011 Filly & Mare Turf (G1T). The $1.3 million earner has since produced four winners from six foals to make the races, the best being grade 1 winner Shirl's Speight (Speightstown ).

Shirl's Speight, still actively racing at age 7 for Fipke's silks under the care of trainer Roger Attfield, notched his top-level victory in the 2022 Maker's Mark Mile (G1T) at Keeneland. He most recently finished a creditable fourth in this year's Maker's Mark Mile April 12 behind European dynamo Master of The Seas. Shirl's Speight's younger half sister, Ready for Shirl, ensured the Lady Shirl blood remained strongly in the limelight the subsequent afternoon at the Lexington oval.

Ready for Shirl, aptly named in homage to her late sire, More Than Ready, had one horse beat as she rounded the first turn in Saturday's 1 1/16-mile turf maiden special weight for 3-year-old fillies. Not to be perturbed, Ready for Shirl steadily built her momentum as the furlong markers whisked by, and with a powerful move around the final bend reeled in her foes one by one.

The blaze-faced filly dashed into the daylight down the lane and hit the wire comfortably in front in a time of 1:43.39. Trained by Attfield and ridden by Florent Geroux, Ready for Shirl ($17.86) earned a 98 Equibase Speed Figure for her debut performance.